SP: P&C2 Chauvelin and the League
by slytherinsal
Summary: The continuing adventures of Armand Chauvelin and Petronilla take them back to France on League business helping Percy avoid a trap set by two old enemies. Percy has to see a man about a balloon...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

It was not a large house, nor was it one in a fashionable part of town; but it was theirs!

In the middle of the season, any house was hard to get hold of; and Jimmy Holte, Viscount Frogham, had used all his contacts to find one for his sister and her new husband so they might be private, and not have to start their married life in his house; though Peter had said that she and her Armand had no objection to living in a couple of rooms in the orphan asylum they had set up in the old Frogham property. Froggie had put his foot down.

"I know you, Peter" he said "You'll get involved in the problems of your blasted foundlings rather than enjoying a decent honeymoon; and it's not right."

Peter chuckled.

"Well at least we're not spending our honeymoon in France on business of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel" she said.

"Yes; though I fancy there'll be émigrés to rescue after the invasion attempt" said Froggie.

Peter nodded soberly.

The invasion of France to restore the monarchy might be close to the hearts of some of the League – not that Peter shared such ideals – but the way it had been organised, or as Sir Percy said, DISorganised the chance of success seemed low, even with the use of two or three ships of the line and a number of frigates besides to back up the efforts of the scratch army of émigrés.

Armand Chauvelin, who was as staunch a republican as ever, had refused point blank to have anything to do with it; and pointed out sarcastically to any of the more enthusiastic émigrés who would listen that the emptying of the prison hulks of French prisoners to swell their ranks was nothing short of lunacy since most of them were going to be good republican patriots.

The aristos however refused to listen; the call to duty of their betters would sway the seamen they felt sure. Armand threw up his arms and told them they deserved to be murdered in their berths, or betrayed to the Republican Army.

Sir Percy too had held aloof from the project; the divided command, the rivalry within that between Joseph de Puisaye and Francois de Charette being a serious problem. It was Puisaye who had been deputised by the Comte d'Artois, younger brother of the technical Louis XVIII, but there was precious little intelligence or consultation with him either. Indeed the date and place of the invasion was something that was a matter of uncertainty; which as the Comte d'Artois was supposed to time the attack with his older brother's organising of attacks from the Alps and the Pyrenees set up conditions that were, as Percy said, doomed to failure before they began.

Armand Chauvelin sniffed.

"Those who embark on so mad a venture without thought for consequence, without considering how mismanaged it is, will die; which to my mind merely rids the world of a few more of the stupider and less realistic aristos" he said "The realists recognise that the _ancien regime _ is dead and buried. I consider that those who have dragged their women and children along to be insane, and moreover wicked; there have been changes in the rulership of France since the overthrow of Robespierre and three of the five rulers of the directory are Jacobins; and Jacobins of the most radical kind. They will not be in any wise forgiving to aristos who use foreign aid to invade La Belle France, and frankly I cannot see why they should be. The Bretons may be generally opposed to any government decree because the Bretons are opposed on principle to anyone not a Breton who tells them what to do; but that does not mean that they will necessarily flock to the banner of the aristos when they land on the Quiberon penninsula as Puisaye hopes. It will I fear just kill good honest Breton peasants who are fool enough to be talked into a Bedlam-run bumble broth. The aristos who die will be of no great loss."

Percy shrugged.

"We shall disagree on that; I salute their bravery though I question their wisdom; and their ability to plan. I half considered joining them, but the level of mismanagement was such that I felt that unless I could find a way to take command, my presence would be futile. I have not forbidden any of the League to go along; but I have done my best to warn all that I feel it unlikely to be of any success. You and Peter should enjoy your honeymoon however; because I cannot see that any who survive to be captured should not be treated as prisoners of war. I should not need your aid to rescue survivors. Prisoners of war, unless ill-treated for some reason, are outside the purview of the League."

Chauvelin nodded.

"Good; it would try my honour to rescue those I consider acting contrary to the good of France. I despise the way that France is run, but I continue to hope that there will be a time that her officials learn to run a democracy efficiently. Barras may remain in power but with Fouché and Merlin no longer in high office, perhaps things will improve, even with Jacobins; Jean-Francois Rewbell is a shrewd man and able; unscrupulous of course but perhaps that is no bad thing; and to balance him Lazare Carnot is a moderate and he is a man of integrity and honour. I am grateful that the smugglers you know get the _Moniteur _ so readily and not too long out of date to keep up with affairs in France."

"And I am glad of your insights into the people you know" said Percy. "You think then that the aristos will not be treated as prisoners of war, that this might rouse the Jacobin members of the Directory to a resumption of the Terror?"

"I fear so, Percy" said Armand. "I fear it is the worst possible thing for France. I recognise that England fights France partly because France is expansionistic, and expansionistic England resents others having colonies; but to my mind the situation in France could be better dealt with by recognising the Republic and sending advisors. But I know that is not likely to happen; all other monarchies feel too afraid that republican ideals will rouse their peasantry to revolt, because they have failed to grasp the fact that it was the tyranny of an absolutist monarchy that drove the people of France to revolt in fear of their lives. It's something you smug complaisant English with your smug complaisant peasantry cannot understand; because your people are not a peasantry and they expect justice across the board of society. The idea of being chattels is so alien to them that they cannot conceive of it. To hell with politics anyway; go away Percy, I'm on honeymoon."

Sir Percy laughed and left them to it; slightly disturbed that his one time adversary thought that the invasion would lead to more stringent measures; but hoping that he might be wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"So, Sir Percy, turned coward in your old age that you are not a part of the émigré efforts in France?" sneered Lord Kulmstead. That one time traitor to the League had managed to return to England and mostly avoided other members of the League; but he could not resist making a jibe at Percy's expense.

"Eh, wot?" Sir Percy carefully cleaned his quizzing glass "My dear fellow! Travel on a Naval ship without decent accommodation, and be involved in so messy and noisy a thing as a war? HOW would I keep my cravats impeccable in such circumstances? You ask too much dear boy! Though don't let me stop you being involved if you feel so deuced strongly about it."

Kulmstead flushed.

"Fop" he said scornfully.

"Oh absolutely" said Percy, yawning.

"Also, not imbecilic" said Froggie "Mean to say; even the Government doesn't think it's going to work or they'd have sent a sight more than a handful of ships to back them up. Lunacy!"

"Ah, Frogham" said Kulmstead "Of course your sister is married to a man who used to be a high ranking official in the revolutionary government; one does wonder how close that brings you to treason."

Froggie smiled and flexed his fingers.

"Fancy a stroll down to Hyde Park old boy to discuss that, or would you prefer to apologise?" he said.

"Ah… I fancy a walk in the park might prove bad for my constitution" said Kulmstead "No offence intended."

"I am glad" said Froggie.

Duels might be illegal but they still occurred, Hyde Park being a popular venue. Kulmstead had no very great respect for Froggie's intellect; but he knew he was both a deadly shot and plied a sword with the speed and deadliness of a striking snake.

oOoOo

The Chauvelins were in the mean time supremely happy with each other's company and only went into society often enough to be polite; to Almack's once, and to a few soirées and a rout party run by Lady Blakeney which was always worth attending as Armand enjoyed making Glynde quite apoplectic by his stubborn republicanism. Lady Blakeney had invited the older two of Cecily Cole's younger brothers as well as her older brother Freddie as company for her adopted daughter Leonie; who was adapting to being a Baronet's daughter. Leonie tried to be haughty with Adam and William and was told scornfully by William that he rather expected that her new parents would wish her to be an English lady and not so stuck up as a mere frog aristocrat who had too much starch for being generally ashamed of not being English. This led to a quarrel which was broken up by Peter who issued censure all round for such childish squabbling and she loaned a firm hand in organising them into playing lottery tickets. Leonie had a healthy respect for Peter's censure and subsided, especially as Peter was on very easy terms with both boys.

Besides such entertainments, Armand had stepped round to Brook's once to be greeted with kindly ribaldry over his uxoriousness and proceeded to make such a killing at the whist table that he was well ribbed over the way Lady Luck smiled on him at the moment with so beautiful [and wealthy] a young wife as well as in his luck with cards.

Armand smiled enigmatically.

His luck was down to calm-headed calculation; because he did not like to hang on the sleeve of his bride's fortune and preferred to make his own way with his cool headed play. His wife might be worth something more than an hundred thousand in property and funds, which carefully managed permitted them to live very well indeed; but he enjoyed being able to contribute enough that they never need worry about how much they might help foundlings, and the idea of taking it from the wealthy who did not turn a hair at losing hundreds of guineas at play but would not consider giving even ten guineas to help orphans tickled his rather dark sense of humour. Even so, he preferred the company of his lovely wife.

oOoOo

The young couple were therefore mostly in; which state of affairs need not necessarily apply to all visitors, though that fact had yet to impinge on their new butler.

Hodges had been a captain's servant in the navy, fighting the revolutionary army; he had lost an arm on the glorious first of June and had been invalided out to starve. He had recommended a friend as chief groom, a marine, who had lost a leg; and the language in the servant's quarters was a trifle salty. George, the stableboy and occasional tiger, considered 'Chalky' White, the new groom to be almost as good as Mr Hobbes in Froggie's employ and tried to copy the naval vernacular until clipped absently across the ear by 'Mr Armand' as he called Chauvelin. George was really the boy-of-all work and did service – on the few occasions Armand required it – as valet, or rather to fetch and carry. George enjoyed the variety. Liza, the second maid, did similar; with Lucille the French girl rescued from a nasty predicament as Peter's abigail. Cook was a Creole woman who had been a slave whose sale had been advertised; and Peter, who disapproved of slavery, had promptly bought her and sorted out papers of manumission. Araminta, the unfortunate woman's name, was being sold on account of her frequent insubordination, which had not put Peter off; and for being freed had the wholehearted adoration of the woman, especially since Peter had managed to buy her little boy too and freed him. Diogenes had been re-named to what his mother called him – Louis – and ran small errands suitable for his age, being about four. Three general maids and a parlour maid had been employed from the household of a man who had shot himself over his gambling losses; and his unfortunate wife had been moved to the orphan asylum to help there in a position where she might train girls to be good maids and to sew even if she had no other skills. The housekeeper was a naval widow, whose husband had been fourth lieutenant on a frigate, recommended by Hodges once again, and her sole surviving daughter helped Araminta in the kitchen. The food tended to be more highly spiced than the Chauvelins were used to, but Mrs Stoppard, the housekeeper, and her daughter Alice, was seeing about tactfully teaching Araminta other ways than Creole cooking.

It was, as Froggie said, a household of Peter's usual kind of waifs and strays; and if there was any friction between such disparate strays, the sunny disposition of Mrs Peter, as Madame Petronilla Chauvelin was generally known below stairs sorted out most of the more pressing personality problems in the desire her waifs and strays had to please her.

oOoOo

Into this marital bliss came a note of disharmony in the small trim figure of a visitor; Hodges had not learned much in the way of discrimination yet and blithely informed 'Moosoo Armand' that there was a Miss Dessy-ree Candle to see him.

Properly interpreting that as Desirée Candeille the actress, one time agent of his, Armand sighed and went to see her.

He bowed punctiliously; and Desirée curtseyed.

"What can I do for you, Citoyenne Candeille?" asked Armand coolly.

"Why, Citizen Chauvelin, it is more what I can do for you" said Desirée with a tinkling laugh. "You have lived in exile so long now I should think you will be VERY pleased with the news I bring. It is direct from Citizen Barras and the other members of the directory" she added.

Chauvelin raised an eyebrow.

"Barras? Surely you have not sunk to accepting a slip on the shoulder from that man? Ah, I perceive that you are indeed intimate with him" he added as the colour rose fractionally.

"That is immaterial" snapped Desirée.

"Indeed? Well I have had a desire to retire to the country and perhaps raise pigs; I might offer you a very fine boar as your mate, as preferable to Barras. The man is obscene."

"Do you wish to know the message from the Directory or not?" asked Desirée. There was almost a snap in her voice.

"Not particularly; but I suppose you intend to deliver it in any case" said Chauvelin, sounding bored. It worked for Sir Percy after all.

"You will change your mind when you know what I have brought for you!" said Desirée, reaching into her reticule. Chauvelin balanced himself on the balls of his feet ready to throw himself sideways in case she had a pistol in her reticule; she at least would probably wish the drama of the moment of drawing it out to shoot, not having the cold efficiency of his Peter, who had shot through HER reticule to kill an abductor. All the actress brought out was a bundle of papers. "Here is a document clearing you of any blame that accrued to Robespierre and his minions; and an appointment to chief of police; and a pass to travel anywhere in France with any such companions as you choose" said Desirée. "NOW are you pleased?" she put her head on one side in a naïve little gesture that Chauvelin knew was entirely assumed.

"Not particularly" said Chauvelin, not bothering to take the papers that she held out. She hesitated and put them down on the table. "What I am" he added "Is puzzled that such a messenger as yourself should have been chosen."

She gave her tinkling laugh again.

"Oh perhaps it is because they thought that English chivalry would make sure I got to you unmolested" she said.

Chauvelin raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"Maybe you intimated to Barras that you had once been my mistress, and with that lie convinced him that you might do a better job of persuading me to take this dubious offer" he said. "You are an excellent actress Desirée but not good enough to hide your emotions from me; I see that you were not averse of making our brief and purely professional association into a greater matter than it was."

"Oh can you blame me?" she cried, tears forming in the corners of her dark eyes. "You are right about Barras; he is a pig. Help me to stay in England away from him, and I will be your mistress in fact if you so desire it!"

Chauvelin laughed.

"I don't think so, Desirée; such an association would not in any wise please me. I can give you some addresses of those who will help you to register as an emigrée if you so wish; your little indiscretions of your last stay can doubtless be glossed over so long as you behave this time. I'll even give you a letter of introduction to Mr Sheridan. But I do not believe I wish to see you again – on the same side of the footlights."

She stamped her little foot.

"You always were a cold creature! You do not want me as a mistress because you are not a man and you do not know how to deal with a woman!"

Armand laughed.

"Well there is one woman at least who would disagree" he said as the door opened and Peter came in, alerted by Hodges that there was a young female whom he had mistakenly left in and the Master needed rescuing from. "Permit me to introduce my wife; Petronilla, my dear, Miss Candeille."

"Ah yes, I have heard about you" said Peter, advancing the tips of her fingers for the briefest of touches. "Armand, White wishes to know your orders for the day."

"I shall go to him at once" said Armand. Peter would extract anything else worth extracting from the Candeille woman.

oOoOo

Desirée Candeille was frankly staring.

Peter was a vision of loveliness with her natural golden curls and blue eyes in flawless English skin; her curls topped with a ridiculous confection of linen and lace that was her indoor cap, a round gown of sheer white muslin falling from the high waist that was the highest of fashion, worn under a polonaise with Circassian sleeves in a shimmering blue silk that matched her eyes, caught under the breasts with its matching silk belt. Peter had in fact paused to put the polonaise on to add to her outfit in order to rout any 'female', horse and foot the better for its added ammunition.

It may be said that it took a considerable time for the London papers to reach Paris; and moreover those who had access to them, those in power, did not trouble with the pages containing social chit-chat. Therese Tallien might have been able to tell those in power that Armand Chauvelin had married an aristo; but Therese Tallien would not be likely to hob-nob with a less than fashionable actress like Desirée Candeille. And Desirée had not been in England long enough to pick up what was, in any wise, stale news. The shabby location of the house, the rough manners of the butler and her belief that no woman would look twice at Armand Chauvelin unless she wanted something from him made her make an entirely erroneous assumption.

"Well, I don't know where he picked YOU up" she said, sneering faintly "And you are well enough to look at I suppose; and you have learned fast enough also to speak well too."

Peter blinked; realised the woman's mistake in an instant, laughed and said,

"Well I do believe I have had quite an extensive education. What was it that you desired of my husband?"

"Oh that is a matter far beyond your comprehension, my fine chit" said Desirée, haughtily.

"Delightful!" murmured Peter "I never knew you had talent as a comedienne; I understood it was tragedy you preferred. I perceive I was entirely wrong! It's a trifle stilted though for somewhere like Drury Lane; such comedic melodrama should really be exaggerated more for greater humorous effect."

Desirée was unsure how to handle this; the name calling she might have expected or the bridling of a chit put in her place she had anticipated; not amused contempt. She flushed angrily.

"When Chauvelin has returned to France, I doubt he will even take you with him" she said. "You are but a sop to respectability in this vulgar district."

Peter chuckled.

"Lud, you have a positive talent for it, I declare!" she said. "Ah, Rateau, down sir; the meat is poisoned".

Citizen Rateau, that loyal and mongrel hound had nosed the door open and joined his mistress, growing at Desirée. At the word of his mistress he sank to his belly, eyes still on the interloper, his teeth faintly bared.

"How now! You would insult me?" cried Desirée, eyeing the dog with disfavour and not a little fear.

"Yes, actually" said Peter "It is my house after all, and you uninvited; I believe the point of convention permits that I say more or less what I please to you. As I have a large dog who is itching to bite you, I believe that also gives me a certain advantage in what I may, and may not say."

"Well miss, if you think I'll stay to be insulted…."

"Oh you're not going to; I'm throwing you out" said Peter, pleasantly, ringing the bell. Hodges came in. "Ah, Hodges, the young person was just leaving; she is not to be admitted again; women of her type offend me."

"Very good, Madame" said Hodges.

Desirée was smarting; that chit of a girl had been taught to talk like the very aristos who had so insulted her before in their lazy condescension; what was Chauvelin up to? And she had even robbed her of the satisfaction of flouncing out by having her removed like an importunate beggar! At least the so-called butler had only one arm and could not manhandle her out; else she had little doubt that he would have done so!

oOoOo

It may be said that it took Desirée several days to find a group of émigrés who would speak to her and who shared with her the information – with, it may be said a degree of malicious satisfaction – that Armand Chauvelin sometimes called vicomte had married the wealthy sister of Jimmy Holte, Viscount Frogham, the most eligible and beautiful debutante of the season and had set up house with her in the only quarters available at the height of the season. And the girl was a genuine aristo, vouched for by all society! Desirée quite ground her teeth in rage and chagrin! WHAT was Chauvelin up to and how had he managed to bamboozle a viscount into letting him marry his sister? It was incomprehensible!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Armand and Peter examined the papers with deep suspicion.

"I see no sign of any secret mark that would be the same as shouting that the bearer of such should be immediately arrested" said Armand "Which had crossed my mind; that they hated me enough to try to entrap me by offering what they thought I most wanted."

"It could be as simple as the fact that they find themselves in such desperate straits that only you can root out those they fear most" said Peter. "That they regret losing your services. And even so they misunderstand; the revolution replaced one despotic tyranny with another where the word of the revolutionary leaders but replaced that of the aristos. Only when they learn that governance of a republic is at the mandate of the people, and neither by mob rule nor by police oppression will they have any chance of success."

"You preach to the converted ma mie" said Armand. "Had I not come to realise this, I should have refused the rescue and gone to my fate believing in my country, and certain that my death made a difference. By accepting the aid of the League I had perforce to accept certain truths and examine them in detail, rather than trying to pretend to myself that all was as it should be. But you could be right; because they have NOT realised how to properly run a democratic republic they look to my skills to discover and crush all who would oppose them. We have learned how the Jeunesse doree terrorise the streets; and they look to Tallien as their natural idol. And Tallien is not in the highest circles of the government, just one of the five hundred; but he has the power of leading those young ruffians. He is one of my potential enemies; I did NOT make myself popular with him when I tried to arrest his then betrothed. A machination of Sir Percy's, but that is neither here nor there. Perhaps they hope that I would find some way of silencing him. Eh bien! What shall we do with this worthless paper; burn it, or place it in the earth closet?"

"Oh frame it with the caption that it is the funniest thing since Gillray" said Peter "And have the League to a soirée to point and laugh."

"So be it, ma mie" laughed Armand. "It will amuse them much that a special envoy was sent to try to bring me back. Shall I too frame the five thousand francs that I find here in an envelope?"

"Either that or offer them as spills for the company to light their pipes" said Peter.

"That I find the most amusing" said Armand "And so too will Sir Percy."

Sir Percy, invited to use a large denomination French bank note to light a pipe did find it highly amusing; and he knew Chauvelin well enough too to realise that the man would have done precisely the same had that bank note been all that stood between him and starvation. It was a story he would spread too to the Prince of Wales, inclined to be suspicious of Chauvelin still; as a token of his integrity that his loyalty, once given, remained until he was himself betrayed. Percy might prefer snuff to a pipe; but the opportunity to cock a snoot at the French government was too delicious to turn down; and was delighted that his old adversary was ready to make this grand gesture.

Sir Percy had heard one rumour to the effect that Chauvelin not only knew more about the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel than most and was loyal to them, but had been their man in Paris from the first. Which was ridiculous, but as society seemed eager to find a reason to accept the husband of the season's most eligible debutante, and had dusted off his discarded title of vicomte to apply, whether Chauvelin wanted it or not; then presumably such a rumour tickled the fancy of a society for whom the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel and all his League were heroic and romantic characters!

Armand kept one high denomination note to frame with the rest of the papers; and added as decoration the charred remains of the spills as proof of how much he valued the offer. The other members of the League thought it a splendid gesture; and only one asked Froggie if he thought his brother-in-law would have done as much without the advantage of a wealthy wife.

"Lud, I should say!" said Froggie "Stiff necked and proud to a fault is our Armand; would starve rather than use a bribe!"

It says much for the integrity of the league as a whole that they were ready to accept Froggie's word on this and to accept their old adversary the better for his savage disposal of the incentive from the government that had betrayed him.

Chauvelin himself wrote to Desirée Candeille thanking her for being the courier of the amusing jest that he had been able to frame for the enjoyment of his friends and the pieces of worthless paper that were nonetheless perfect spills for such of his friends as smoked. It was as well not to let her think he had accepted the bribe.

Sir Percy made sure too that he passed on the tale to the Prince of Wales who was inclined to be sceptical about the truth of Chauvelin's change of heart; which made the Prince laugh in appreciation at the gesture. He shared the joke with his brother. Prince William, who liked Peter and probably liked her the better because she was NOT willing to become a royal mistress and who saw himself as the occasional cicisbeo to Madame Chauvelin; and Prince William declared he liked Chauvelin the better for it and stap him, if he did not begin to see what Madame Petronilla saw in him!

Peter thought Prince William quite an amusing roué and without encouraging his attentions quite enjoyed an offhand and obviously not serious flirtation with him; though the Prince did draw the line at demonstrating for her the hornpipe with the aid of any other naval officers present at Almack's. He had a lively fear of the reaction of the patronesses.

He did however produce a group of sailors to demonstrate the dancing of it at the next soiree that Peter and Armand attended at Percy's house in Richmond and was gratified to be thanked prettily by Peter who also vailed the sailors well for their efforts.

Armand received invitations it was hard to turn down in consequence, sighed, sought out the gaming rooms, and proceeded to take a number of royal princes and their friends at whist for the greater good of their foundlings.

Whist and piquet were both games requiring a good head for figures and a good memory of what cards had been laid; and Armand had both. He also demonstrated to the members of the league – those who could follow the explanation all through in any case – the theories of Fermat and Pascal on probability. He dealt a hand of whist, showed his hand, and proceeded, as the first round was played to explain how he might, on the way the cards were laid, use understanding of the way each player thought to make some assumptions about their hand; and from what cards had gone the probability of any other face card being in the hand of the other players. He lost most of the audience except Percy and George Stowmaries.

However, it was generally declared that if Percy understood what he was talking about and considered there was no harm in it, then there was no harm in it; for however well intentioned, one could not have anyone fleecing a royal duke in any way that might prove to be a new and foreign way of sharping.

Not that anyone used so contentious a word; and the members of the league who had harboured slight suspicions were feeling guilty enough at such unfounded suspicions that they warmly pressed Armand – and Peter of course – to attend their own functions where they might not have otherwise bothered. And Peter, who had a very good idea of the reasons behind these warm invitations, accepted on the behalf of both of them on the principle that it would be churlish not to permit friends to atone for unworthy thoughts.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The invitations Peter found trying as well; especially when invited to a rout that had, as its entertainment, the expectation that every guest would do their duty in the line of musical endeavour. Peter sat, bored, through the usually indifferent playing of the harp or pianoforte by various ladies who played with mechanical determination for the most part, and little verve; and the rather embarrassing warbling of a lady who sang to her sister's accompaniment something that Mozart might have recognised but only in the way that a mother might recognise her daughter dressed as a drab, as she whispered to Armand.

He had to take his nasty fit of coughing outside the door.

"Madame Chauvelin; surely you will give us a treat in the musical line?" gushed the hostess, a Lady Harriet. "A tune upon the pianoforte perhaps?"

"I am afraid" said Peter "That I have never learned to play; I am not in the least musical."

Her hostess laughed.

"You are too modest!" she declared "Why all ladies are accomplished at music!"

"Indeed? I fear that I am not" said Peter. "It did not form part of my education."

"Oh surely you cannot mean that! All mothers like their daughters to be accomplished!"

"Possibly; but when they are dead I suspect that they find it a little hard to undertake such matters" said Peter with asperity. Even this did not penetrate the thick skin of Lady Harriet.

"Oh but surely you will at least sing, even if you disclaim your skills with instrumentals? It is de rigeur!" persisted Lady Harriet. Peter regarded her with disfavour.

"If I have no choice in the matter I could favour you with a song in French" she said.

"That would be quite delightful!" declared her hostess.

She had changed her mind in a very short while when Peter rose, bowed to the assembled company, and in her sweet boyish voice proceeded to sing 'Ça Ira' in its entirety including her own additional lyrics on hostesses who have no manners.

The room fell silent, less in any appreciation of her musical gifts than in total shock. None of the English company had ever heard THAT song sung; but they had all heard of it.

"At least SHE can keep a tune and doesn't sound like a goat being strangled, demme, even if it is a demmed tasteless choice" declared one gentleman audibly.

Peter finished to utter silence, smiled brightly and said

"I told you I was not musical."

"Ma mie you are bad!" said Chauvelin, who was wiping tears of laughter from his eyes "You have set this whole assembly by the ears!"

"I lost my temper with that idiot woman" said Peter.

Lady Suzanne Ffoulks, Sir Andrew's wife, joined them.

"Petronilla, that was most tactless! But I must say it was also very funny seeing some of the faces!"

"Suzanne; I apologise if I have caused YOU offence; I had not realised you were here" said Peter "But Lady Harriet would not let me bow out of performing though I have no musical skill; and I DO know that wretched piece, even as I know the Carmagnole, to be in role. And I could not resist seeing how it would affect the fatuously complacent fools here."

Suzanne giggled.

"Oh I am far enough away in time and distance not to be affronted by a mere song; it was very witty to remind these fools that good men are still dying in France for the tattered ideals of those with good intent" she nodded a little coolly to Chauvelin to acknowledge his good intent "And those of ambition. The additional lyrics were also quite priceless."

"Alas that I could see that few enough understood them!" mourned Peter.

oOoOo

Peter and Armand attended Almack's on Wednesday in order that none thought that Peter should be hiding her head after what might be termed a faux pas – Percy's orders – where the Prince of Wales cornered Peter.

"Hear you've been writing new words to that demmed revolutionary song" he said.

"Yes sir; a shame it passed over the heads of those I was trying to insult" said Peter "No point turning a pointed snub if the whole point of it is blunted by terminal obtuseness."

"I hear you sang 'it will be it will be it will be, the unwilling guests neverendingly sing, it will be it will be it will be in spite of the hostess we will succeed' said the Prince.

"That is a close translation" said Peter cheerfully. "It went downhill from there. I never received a musical education; you knew my sire, sir, can you imagine him considering putting me in front of a pianoforte or harp? Lud, I declare, it never occurred to him I was not Froggie's younger brother; and can you imagine Froggie twanging away at mournful tunes on a harp?"

The Prince of Wales gave a shout of laughter.

"Egad, Madame Chauvelin, the idea is too risible to contemplate! Froggie on a harp…..might as well have Percy on pianoforte!"

"I believe he has been moved to play the squeezebox badly and even the fiddle" said Armand mildly "But not in circumstances that would enhance his reputation in a drawing room."

"Aye, well, you'd know" said the Prince, glancing discreetly around before asking, "Is it true that you have joined the League?" Chauvelin noted that the Prince was wise enough not to draw attention to the question by speaking in a normal voice and not in any intimate whisper.

"Quite true sir" said Armand "I found that there were too many ideals I held in common with them that I had hoped to pursue through political change in my own country; that have been defamed, prostituted and betrayed."

"So long as you don't want to stir up revolutionary zeal here, wot?" said the Prince, laughing a little nervously.

"I believe sir" said Armand "The level of contentment amongst a sufficient majority of the British people is such that revolution is quite impossible; the odd riot perhaps over localised discontent but I find that where the French peasant is bucolic for being downtrodden to a dumb acceptance, the English peasant uses his supposed bucolic mien as a means to get his own way by deliberate and determined stupidity over anything he does not want to do. Thus, each Englishman carries his own private revolution against minor tyranny, making a major revolution utterly superfluous."

"Demme, man, I like you a lot more now you are English than I did when you were an ambassador!" said the Prince.

"Sir, I like me a lot more since I have been honest with myself about abandoning shattered dreams instead of pretending that the shards made a perfect mirror to reflect that the King Revolution really did have new clothes and was not stripped to a horrid nakedness of ridicule for being as the weavers claimed in that old Spanish tale but a base born cur" said Armand.

The Prince laughed again.

"You are a wit, indeed!" he said. "Stap me, M. Chauvelin, if I held any reservations, I withdraw them!"

Armand bowed.

"Your Highness is most kind" he said. "I find that as an English gentleman permitted to interfere in the social injustices that inevitably arise from the exciting times of industrial growth I am most contented."

"A contentment to which your lovely wife no doubt contributes?" Prince George eyed Peter appreciatively.

A touch of colour warmed Armand's naturally sallow countenance.

"Indeed sir, she contributes mightily" he said.

oOoOo

The conversation with the Prince of Wales overcame any coldness that some of the sticklers of Almack's might have felt; and soon the on-dit was circulating of how Madame Chauvelin had rebuked those who placed undue emphasis on trumpery skills with music while men died in merciless France's encarnadine maw. Which was, as Peter put it dryly to Armand, a trifle more floridly put than she might have phrased it.

It did however make life a little more comfortable; though Peter really did not care that much if she were ostracised by society, it might make things harder for her brother Froggie and his Cecily. And such too, as Percy pointed out, made League meetings that were concealed by obviousness harder, if some of the members were not accepted in society.

"Or we could just meet in the houses of members; your particular friends ARE known, you know, Percy _mon ami_" said Armand dryly. "Ah, I wish you might have seen the faces…. You would have laughed!"

"Demme, you reprehensible pair, half of the reason I am at odds with you is because I missed it through ducking what I knew would be an intolerable squeeze!" said Percy. "Marguerite would be pestered by those fools; and she is still overcoming birthing. Oh, just a word on the babe; we're using his second name, George; if we stayed with Justin, I couldn't help thinking of St Just, you know… and it pleases the Prince to think we do it in honour of him."

"Understood" said Armand "I do not apologise to adding to St Just's shame; it is my opinion that had I not been the vehicle for his disobedience and lack of trust then another circumstance would have precipitated it."

"He was disobeying before you entered his sphere" said Percy in an unwontedly hard tone. "I still find it marvellous that you, my old arch enemy, trusted and obeyed where my own brother in law did not."

"For myself I had ample proof that what you promise, you achieve" said Armand. "And I also had proof that those who disobey can cause some inconvenience to you…. Which in light of those long sleepless days I fear is a foray into the realms of litotes."

Percy laughed his merry laugh.

"Why, with such drollery, we really shall make an Englishman of you yet, Armand old man!" he declared.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Peter and Armand had recklessly promised to take all the orphans to Vauxhall Gardens to observe a balloon ascension; which had necessitated hiring two coaches and coachmen to go with them, who were not best pleased to find out that they were transporting a bunch of foundling brats.

Armand moved to the side of the one who was expostulating the loudest.

"Do carry on in this vein, my man" he said smoothly "I am sure that you are looking for a long holiday since the lady whom you are damning so contemptuously will doubtless mention to her brother Viscount Frogham and her cicisbeo Prince William and the other members of society that she moves amongst that the treat she wished to bestow on these children was spoiled for the rude manners of one coachman….. I have your name, you know; it could, however, shortly become Mud."

"Garn, wot for is a grand lady gwine ter take filthy kinchin out fer?" said the coachman.

"SOME people call it benevolence. I doubt that is a word in your vocabulary" said Armand. "However we have time in hand; if you cannot manage your job in silence you may depart, without any fee, and we shall arrange to divide the rest of the children up amongst a selection of phaetons…. Petronilla ma mie, this fellow is impudent and does not wish to take the children; nor does he recognise your right or desire to give them a treat. You had better send George for Froggie and Sir Percy and George Stowmaries and any of the other who will turn out."

Peter came over and regarded the coachman with disfavour.

"Come down here" she said. "George, hold the horses for him."

George was in livery as Peter's tiger and obediently ran to do as he was bid. The coachman got down.

"Now see 'ere, miss" he said "I ain't abaht ter 'ave my coach overrun by a pack o' darty brats."

"It's Madam; I am married" said Peter "And they are perfectly clean. Far more so than you; your linen is disgraceful. I don't believe I want a dirty object like you near my foundlings."

"Now look 'ere!" said the coachman

"I'd rather not; it's not a pretty sight" said Peter. "Are you going to keep your tongue between your teeth and drive, or not?"

"No I bleedin'…."

He went down to Peter's scientific blow to the jaw.

"I HATE these endless discussions" said Peter, checking her knuckles. "Right; inside sharpish you lot; I dare say four can be no harder to handle than two when they appear to be slugs like these!"

The foundlings goggled at their 'Mrs Petronilla' dropping the coachman with what one of the older lads described in awe as a 'wisty castor to the bone box' and meekly got in. She really was a right one, she was, a bang-up mort if you like!

And what was more she did not muck about and was not a lady to disobey in a hurry!

oOoOo

Peter was consequently sitting on the driving seat high above the heads of most – and ignored by most too – to keep the horses from getting restive while Armand and the Hodges and sundry other staff of the foundling asylum shepherded their charges to a good viewing point. She heard a voice she recognised in the carriage standing next to hers.

"Are you sure that here is no risk meeting like this?" said the voice of Desirée Candeille.

"Lud, woman, none at all; none of the League is likely to be at Vauxhall for some pesky balloon ascension; don't be so damned jumpy" said a male voice.

Peter's memory was good; she had heard the faintly nasal, indeed almost whining voice before. It belonged to a man called Kulmstead whom Armand had pointed out to her as one who had tried to betray the league for, so far as Armand could gather, no better reason than that he was jealous of Percy. Peter pricked up her ears; this might be a conversation worth overhearing.

"Very well; I have been to France as you told me to do; they knew your name and said that they believed that you were truly ready to betray the Scarlet Pimpernel. You are certain that that little bastard Chauvelin really is his lap-dog?"

"Oh yes; I am certain" said Kulmstead "And that any scheme to rescue the so-called innocents in France will include Chauvelin to make him prove himself to the League."

"I care less about the League or the Scarlet Pimpernel; it is Chauvelin I want to see humiliated and his wife brought low too if possible!" said Desirée venomously.

"Froggie's sister? Now what have you against her?" asked Kulmstead.

"She treated me like dirt! Spoke to me as though I were nothing!" said Desirée through clenched teeth.

Kulmstead laughed.

"You are nothing you foolish little demimondaine! I can't think what made Froggie permit his sister to marry Chauvelin though….. surely Sir Percy can't be so desperate to use his aid that he would order one of his band to immolate his sister for the good of the league? Still it's an arrogant creature that Percy is, quite ready to sacrifice anyone; maybe that's the truth of it, and the wench hardly likely to feel kindly towards any acquaintances of her new husband. Perhaps I should make up to her and see if I can't get the wench to confide in me….."

"I care nothing for your amorous endeavours!" snapped Desirée "Do you or do you not want to know the message I was charged with?"

"I do indeed, you pretty little creature" said Kulmstead. "You are most attractive when you are angry."

This apparently diverted Desirée briefly.

"Oh, do you think so?" she asked "I suppose it heightens my colour and makes my eyes flash with forbidding fire."

"Your paps tremble delightfully too you little witch. Now get on with the message; and if you deliver it well I shall spend half an hour permitting you to persuade me to set you up as my peculiar" said Kulmstead.

"There is a Duc who has a claimant to the throne who had tried an uprising in the confusion of the invasion" said Desirée "And apparently the whole village of idiots support him so well they are hiding him; the lives of all of them are forfeit unless they give up the Duc and his claimant. What is a more perfect trap for this Pimpernel? Every road in is to be watched; every stranger stopped and searched and prevented from going onward. Not a mouse will stir but that the authorities will know about it. And when they have Chauvelin in their grasp again I will delight; for he has insulted all France with his insults to their request for aid!"

"The hell with France; it's the personal aspect I care for" said Kulmstead. "And how pray is Sir Percy to be told of this?"

"Why, one idiot boy was permitted to escape; and he fell in with a beautiful actress who was seeking to go to England and freedom; and the actress happened to mention the Scarlet Pimpernel and suggested that he call at the house of a M. Le docteur Pradel" said Desirée "Being less high and mighty than some who might have scared the poor boy; and believed too to know the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel. I was told that he probably knew anyway when the meeting with the boy was arranged."

"Pradel!" Kulmstead mused. "He came from France early in '93; with an old Abbé and the Marquis de la Rodiere and his sister and mother; Pradel married the girl Cécile as I recall; and St John Devinne broke with the League and joined up. I wonder…."

"What, you hope for an ally in another who has left the league?" said Desirée somewhat derisively. "I suppose you want ME to seek him out and gain his attention?"

"By Jove, that's a capital idea!" said Kulmstead.

Desirée sighed.

"I would rather be in the position of gaining YOUR attention, My Lord" she said.

"Well, why not do your best you pretty little ladybird?" said Kulmstead.

oOoOo

Peter frowned.

She was not going to get anything more useful out of that carriage; but Percy must be told as soon as possible. She gave the loud and fluting whistle by which she was accustomed to call both George and Citizen Rateau; the dog had NOT accompanied them on this expedition for fear he might become over excited and try to chase the balloon,

The Balloon was almost full and George came back with some reluctance. Peter jumped down and went to the horses' heads to speak quietly.

"You may watch it ascend; and then I want you to be away by hackney carriage to Sir Percy's house; I will write a letter, and if anyone tries to take it from you burn it or eat it."

"Strewth!" said George impressed. "'Oo you rescuin' now?"

"That you don't need to know" said Peter "This is a letter warning Sir Percy that he has an enemy. Now hold those horses while I write!"

George leaped up to hold the reins from the coachman's seat from which he had a better view of the ascent; and Peter got out the paper and pencil she carried with her at all times as a member of the League and scrawled a swift précis of what she had heard for Percy.

George was away running when she passed it over, the balloon having just started to rise; and George deciding to cover his departure with the other urchins running after the balloon.

Peter nodded to herself, pleased. She had never regretted scooping George almost literally out of the gutter! The boy was resourceful and brave; and she had no doubt that he would be a full member of the league by the time he was full grown. As he got used to better living, she and Armand might make him their ward and treat him as a son – though from her point of view, he was more in age to be a little brother!


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Peter was glad to get her orphans loaded up; the noise they made caused Kulmstead to lift the blind he had pulled over his chaise window and make a disgusted noise. Peter signalled to her Armand to come round the other side. She leaned down to whisper that the coach on the left had enemies in; and that they should leave as expeditiously as possible.

The children all hustled in at a peremptory wave of the hand from Peter.

The other coachman came over.

"Wiv due respec' ma'am, what's to 'appen about the coach and the fee?" he asked.

"Well if your colleague is not waiting to return it I shall drive it back to your yard and have my husband or brother pick me up there" said Peter "And I will pay the fee in full; because the yard provided two coachmen. It was not the fault of the hire company that I found one unsatisfactory. Will you lead? It's an interesting business driving anything this big."

He nodded and touched his hat to her; he would not be in trouble for permitting it so long as the fee was paid, and Madam drove very prettily so he did not need to fear damage to the coach.

Peter was glad to have another big vehicle to follow with the amount of traffic leaving Vauxhall; there was quite a strain in driving a much larger vehicle than she was used to and with four horses too. She had taken a few turns with her brother's phaeton and four; but had no desire to do so as a matter of course. It did help that none of the horses on the coach were spirited in any way!

The errant coachman having taken himself and his bruised jaw elsewhere, Peter called upon Armand to follow in her phaeton.

Armand pulled a face; he had learned the rudiments of driving but horses were not creatures he loved even though he had overcome his fear of them.

"I'll drive Mr Arman'!" said George.

Armand hesitated; then nodded. George might be a little optimistic concerning his own skills; but Armand did not feel he could do a worse job than himself. And if they were following two sedate coaches, George might not be tempted to do anything rash.

George was so delighted to be given the chance to drive Mrs Peter's bang-up prancers that he had no intention of blotting his copy book by taking any risks with them; and the only incident that in any wise disturbed Armand's peace of mind was the exchange of opinions between George and the driver of a Hackney carriage that had tried to get between the coach Peter was driving and the phaeton. As the entire exchange took place in the most lurid cant, Armand decided that it was wise to look impassive and be pleased that he only understood about one word in five, which understanding was more than enough.

As George flourished the whip and trotted on and the Hackney dropped back, Armand took it that their tiger had come out the winner of the engagement.

And when they reached the yard and Peter settled up, forestalling the complaints the owner had been about to level at her, he was pleased for her to take the ribbons herself and George slithered like an eel back onto the footboard to stand on that precarious position. He would have been more than welcome, as Peter had said mildly on occasion, to make use of the rumble seat; but George preferred the distinction of being a tiger at the back. His arms were strengthened from climbing chimneys in his days as a climbing boy; and he was proud of his ability to hang on.

oOoOo

As they drove away, Peter filled Armand in on what she had heard. George listened avidly.

"I take it we're headed for Richmond rather than back home?" asked Armand.

"I thought it might make sense" said Peter. "Here, George, feel like running one more message then going home to poor Rateau?"

"Wotever you wants, Mrs Peter" said George.

"If I drop you off near Horse Guards' you ask for the Lilywhite Seventh and see if you can't find a Lord St John Devinne – it's spelled Saint John on the letter I have here for you but Sinjen is how you say it" she said as George, who was acquiring literacy, looked puzzled when she handed back a note. "I wrote it with the intent of stopping there but you can save me a lot of trouble, George; and if he asks you questions you may answer. Froggie knows him; counts him almost a friend" she added.

"Oh well, if Mr Froggie knows him" said George "And vouches for him, then he's awright."

"Quite so" said Peter.

George hopped down and sped away.

"What's the story?" asked Armand.

"A bit like St Just's only not as sordid" said Peter "From what m'brother pieced together; Devinne was in love with one of the aristocratic females the league was setting up to rescue only she was in love with another, a doctor; you'll be familiar with the story from the other way round as it were because her brother horsewhipped the said doctor or otherwise did him violence. Devinne tried to denounce the doctor – this Pradel whom your erstwhile non chere amie is using to spread the word to Percy – and hoped to get away with having him off the scene. He joined the army; so I am supposing that Percy suggested that as a means of redeeming his honour. Froggie happened to mention that he had run into him having been wounded; the Lilywhites were in Holland last year in that abortive attempt to relieve it from French rule. So I know he's in the Seventh Queen's Own Regiment of Dragoons, known as the Lilywhites – so Froggie says – for the white facings on their uniforms. He told me about him, and about this Kulmstead, after St Just left for Louisiana so I should be aware."

"I know something of the story – the escape of the de la Rodiere family" said Armand dryly "Percy locked me in a cupboard. What did you write?"

"That I was Froggie's sister and that Froggie considered him a man of honour; and that he should be warned that I had overheard that he was possibly to be approached by a pretty female at the behest of a man of NO honour who wished to trample on a certain red flower we all revered. I added that Froggie had made some guesses and understood why he had felt a need to leave but that he was someone to be considered worthy of receiving a warning. I then added that I was married to an old enemy who had discovered that honour lay on a different path to the way he had followed and signed it. I think that should prepare him for most of the shocks" she added.

Armand laughed.

"Right up to the moment he sees you er, draw someone's cork!" he said, still seeing the picture in his mind's eye of Peter's fist flashing up to connect with the unsuspecting jaw of the coachman.

"Well he was a nasty little man" said Peter dismissively "And we were just starting to break the children of some of the words he was using."

She headed out towards Richmond and Blakeney Manor.

oOoOo

One of the things Percy valued about Peter was her ability to give a precise and concise report. She told him of the conversation between Kulmstead and Desirée; and explained that she had sent George on an errand to St John Devinne that he not be used by the Candeille female who was a better actress off the stage than on it.

Percy frowned.

"I largely severed ties with Johnny; I had not known that Froggie had pieced together so much" he said.

"I expect he and George Stowmaries discussed it" said Peter "Long headed is George. Probably stopped Froggie from making a fool of himself charging off to call Devinne out too."

"And I made quite sure not to act in any way that would make Froggie suspicious when I had rescued Johnny" said Percy. "What made him wonder?"

"Oh Froggie's no prodigy; but he isn't as stupid as a lot of people think" said Peter "And I should think that Devinne avoided his usual haunts as well as joining up; and Froggie couldn't help but wonder why. And if the fellow had only said that he had acquired a distaste for working in secret and wished to attack the French head on that would have been an end to it. Y'know, if they were that good friends, he might even have confided in m'brother; Froggie was pretty sympathetic towards him when he told me that he HAD been part of the league but that he was a far better fellow than St Just; and he'd be more likely to be taking that tack if an erstwhile colleague had been frank with him."

"Froggie does rather invite confidences" said Percy "And here he is. Gad! Johnny!" for with the Viscount Frogham was a young man in the dashing uniform of a dragoon.

"Percy; I got young George to take me to Froggie's place and pass on what Miss Petronilla – Mrs Chauvelin, I should say – had found out" said St John Devinne, very white of face "And though I know I am not welcome back in the fold, if I may do anything in listening to the er Prime Dell as George described the little dasher I want you to know that I am ready to do what I may to destroy the plans of a real traitor who – who I understand has no excuse for his behaviour."

"Well said" said Percy quietly "And for that I should take you back; second chances may be seized by those with the honour to see them and take them. But I fancy you are happy?"

"Yes, actually I am, Percy; but if you would have me as an associate member to find things out and help in what way I might, I'd be deucedly honoured" said he.

"Well permit me to make you known to Madame Chauvelin; Peter, St John Devinne, Duke of Rudford since the demise of his father; a man of honour" said Percy.

The Duke of Rudford flushed.

"Thank you Percy" he said "You never say anything you do not mean; I am glad that you feel I have redeemed myself. That means more to me that I can say."

"I know old man" said Percy. "And permit me also to present you to Armand Chauvelin; who also knows"

Armand held out a hand.

"I lost my ideals and did what seemed inevitable instead of doing what seemed best" he said "And I have learned much. And one thing I have learned is to trust the Chief utterly and obey. And to do what is right."

Devinne took his hand and shook firmly.

"If Percy welcomes you as a friend and you are for the downtrodden and innocent then I claim the best right of one who has not always understood to call you friend too" he said. "Is there a more intelligible account than small George's to be had?"

Froggie glanced at Percy; who nodded and went through Peter's report.

"I may add" said Percy "That Doctor Pradel has been to see me and we have a young visitor at Blakeney Manor; and such is the bungling ineptitude of our enemies in France" he added merrily "That we have a young claimant to the throne, though it is not what he desires! Felicien de Belletréflière is just fourteen years old and a brave youth who undertook a dangerous journey because he could explain far better than any village boy!" and he gave his quaint and merry laugh "So now we must needs find a way around the trap that is set for us; excellent sport, wot?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"First of all, what is the objective?" asked Peter "Because I may have an idea that will leave Kulmstead and his pretty actress looking pretty silly, if we can pull off the trick all unbenkownst to our enemies."

"The objective" said Sir Percy "Is rather a tough one; to rescue the whole village of Belletréflière, consisting of three hundred souls as well as the Duc Alois de Belletréflière sur Loire and his sister Marie-Louise."

"A stiff task indeed!" said Peter. "And half the trick is to get there without being picked up at a road block; or any of the traps they doubtless have cross country for if I were setting up this trap I should have hounds patrolling between a simple picket fence in circumference about the whole village, or men patrolling with dogs at least, about a mile out."

"Throwing up pickets for mile out in double line would be beyond the capabilities of most soldiers of the republic" said Armand "At least I should never have trusted them to manage it. That's more than six miles of fences ma mie; can you really expect them to be set up in good order over that distance?"

"That is a point" said Peter.

"Finding where a weak point may be in any kind of perimeter is the key" said Sir Percy.

"No it isn't; which was the point I wanted to make" said Peter "Not if we go over the top."

"Over the top? What maggot have you in your head now you Bedlam-born babe?" demanded Froggie.

"Balloons" said Peter. "To be sure we need to send up a balloon to check the wind speed high in the altitude where we shall travel – as I understand it may be different to the speed on the ground – and the precise direction; and from that we might calculate where to loose the balloons that will be carried by the wind in utter silence for the calculated time and then deflate them to land, one might hope, right within the cordon."

"Well the amount you and Armand talk at least we shall have enough hot air" said Froggie with amicable rudeness. "Seriously, Percy, is it possible?"

Percy was looking thoughtful.

"It is POSSIBLE" he said "And had we not Armand as a member of the league who knows engineering I should not say that it was; my knowledge of calculation is not so advanced as his. Armand, would you say it was possible?"

Armand Chauvelin considered; then he nodded.

"Possible; yes. Open to things going wrong; well, inevitably if one is at the mercy of nature, there is a greater chance of accident. I should say that not merely calculation but observation should be a part of this. The Loire should be a visible landmark and we must make ourselves familiar on the map with every bend in it. It could be vital. One might change direction slightly by permitting air to be released slowly on one side; and as such have some control. And there are arguments for and against having two balloons or only one."

"List them" said Percy.

"One balloon has a better chance not to be spotted; means that someone who has actually got a good chance of steering it – me – may do so; and may be more easily concealed on landing. The disadvantage is that if it gets blown off course or some accident occurs that is the rescue over, all the eggs, as you English say, in one balloon basket. With two balloons there is more chance of one going astray; but also more chance of one at least succeeding."

Percy pondered.

"We shall place all the eggs in one basket" he decided "And risk that being a basket full of particularly adept eggs. You can determine wind speed and direction at altitude?"

"Yes but only with certain instruments to be procured from the Royal Society and within a short period of time of our taking off; I shall have to calculate very rapidly, which time will be reduced by ascending and descending" said Armand.

"No it will not; I can ask a Fellow of the Royal Society who does that sort of thing to write down the information, place it in a canister and drop it on a thing called a parachute, which is an experimental device whereby a safe descent is hypothesised to be made from balloons by slowing the ascent with a huge sheet. It has been used successfully with objects" said Percy "We pick up that information and THEN you go to work, Armand."

Armand nodded.

"I like the sound of that. I am tempted to suggest that we increase our chance of success by descending on parachute too and leave the balloon to drift on its merry way; but if there turns out to be a flaw for being too heavy a weight it would be a shame to take an unwarranted risk. Jean Pierre Blanchard claims to have escaped from an exploding balloon using his invention of a folded silk parachute without a frame but the event was not witnessed; and it might be blague, a Gasconade merely to make him look better. These aviators can be a trifle boastful" he gave a Gallic shrug. "I do know that The Revolutionary Army has used balloons – and by the way, I would suggest a hydrogen balloon since there will not then be the flame creating hot air to be seen against the night sky – for a tethered hydrogen balloon was used to observe movements of the Austrian army in 1794 at the battle of Fleurus. It is not, however, something that is likely to readily occur to any of my erstwhile colleagues I should not think" he added with a sardonic look.

"You do rather have them beat when it comes to imagination old boy" said Percy. "Very well; I have details of the plan to work out; and it will take me a number of hours to obtain one observation and one travelling balloon; which must needs then be taken to the best point to disembark. There are plenty of details to be added."

"But Percy, how are we to get three hundred souls in a balloon basket?" asked Froggie "I mean, demme, it can't be done!"

"Returning by balloon was never an option" said Armand "We shall have to break up the whole thing on landing. A shame but no other choice. I too am puzzled as to how to get that many people out; unless Percy plans on supposedly marching them to the nearest town for supposed public execution. And then marching them back in, dressed as sans culottes sent as volunteers from Paris to tend the fields so the war effort will not lose out for the crops being neglected."

"Lud, Armand, I don't know how you do all that thinking without your brains going on fire!" said Froggie, much impressed.

"It has the merit of simplicity" said Percy "I had already come to the conclusion that marching them out openly was the best ploy; to march them back! The gall of that is incredible; and I have to say that even if the deception is uncovered, once the Duc and his nephew are known to be away there is no point making an example of the village."

"And the poor harvests have been poor enough that losing a village is too great a risk to take" said Armand. "May we ask about this claimant, and is he the nephew of the Duc?"

"He is" said Percy "The Duc's sister was a royal mistress some fifteen years ago; her son Felicien is the son of Louis Sixteenth. And I may say that he participated in his uncle's plan only reluctantly and out of duty. Isolation has meant that the Orleans claimants have not been known to the Duc who would doubtless prefer – according to Felicien – to back an adult with established support. The Duc, his sister and the boy have been living quietly and posing as a family of well-too-do peasants, with which deception their tenants have been aiding. The chateau has been sacked and looted – such as was left for them to loot and not concealed – because Duc Alois is a sensible man and heeded the warnings rather than continuing in arrogant assumption that he and his family would not be touched. Apparently he has introduced a lot of farming reforms that have been resisted in other parts of France because he takes the peasants into his confidence over why such changes should be given a chance. They have prospered through his efforts more than many and so are quite willing to treat him with respect for his own sake."

"That's an aristo I have no objections to saving whatsoever" said Armand "It's what an aristocrat SHOULD be. And France's loss in persecuting him will be the gain of some English landowner in need of a steward."

"Actually Percy, if he'll run my duchy for me, my man is old and could do with pensioning off" said Devinne suddenly. "And that way I may be of use to the League almost immediately. I'd help with the calculations if I were in an Artillery regiment but I'm afraid all the calculations they expect us to do in the cavalry is to be able to count up to four to check that the prads have a leg at each corner."

"The offer's appreciated however" said Armand.

Percy smiled on Devinne.

"Johnny, that would be a marvel if I can tell him that" he said. "And he will be pleased, if he is the man I think he is from the way his nephew speaks of him, that he might take care of the people of one of the English aristocrats who has been instrumental in seeing HIS people kept safe."

"Well I shan't exactly be one of those instrumental, shall I?" said Devinne.

"Yes you are; in being a supporter" said Percy "We don't take the credit for individual efforts; we are a team. We are all important. And YOU, Johnny, are going to get what you might from that…actress when she tries to make up to you. I warn you" he paused "I warn you that she is very plausible and she specialises in ingenuous misunderstanding of the wicked motives of others; and in eliciting sympathy for trying her hardest to help."

Johnny Devinne whistled.

"One dangerous little piece" he said. "I am not carrying a torch any longer for Cécile; which might have armoured me; but I shall be on my guard!"

"Do" said Armand dryly "I'VE nearly found myself feeling sympathy for the hussy at times and I do not count myself a susceptible man."

"Egad!" said Devinne "I think I need a cuirass and a nice Mameluke sword to keep her at arm's length!"

"A halberd might be even better" said Armand dryly!


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

It may be said that Felicien de Belletréflière was much enamoured of the idea of a balloon flight as one might expect a fourteen year old boy to be; and thrilled at the idea that this would defeat those watching the village. Percy planned to take the boy for his local knowledge; and because he would at least then also be under his eye.

It would also give Leonie a chance to get over her slight fit of sulks that she had fallen into over the arrival into the household of a boy just two years older than she, who had been a dirty object at first and towards whom she had been inclined to put on a few airs until a stray reference to 'mon oncle le duc' had caused her such a shock she had fallen into a fit of the vapours. Marguerite and Percy were gradually teaching Leonie how to be a lady, as their fe facto adoptive daughter; but there were the odd lapses. And with Felicien out of the way for a while, Marguerite might bring Leonie back to a point where she might greet Felicien, his mother and uncle with a little more equanimity and to have had it pointed out to her that when a big boy of fourteen engages to tease a little girl of twelve it was rather more a compliment than otherwise. Felicien, a perfectly normal lad, had engaged to gently tease the girl as a means to make friends rather than permit her to force a quarrel; but Leonie was unused to teasing. Percy thought the boy's good humour and tolerance would be an excellent example for the child; but to have a few days or weeks in which she might work through the anger that rose so readily still would mean she might meet him with a sunny face once her fit of the sullens had passed and so not put the boy off too much as a companion for her.

Percy had a lot of organising to do; and some of that might be placed in the hands of Froggie and George Stowmaries who were his most able procurement agents. Other things he preferred to see to on his own account.

oOoOo

"You have to see a man about a WHAT did you say, Percy?" Marguerite was rarely taken aback these days by anything that her indefatigable husband said but this time she could hardly believe her ears.

"A balloon, little woman" said Percy "Peter came up with an idea to circumvent a trap laid for Armand and myself by not going through it; going over it."

"A balloon" said Marguerite faintly. People died in ballooning accidents.

On the other hand, she knew that if there was a trap set, Percy would feel obliged to spring it; because Percy was like that. And would blithely walk into it in order to give his companions the chance to do whatever had to be done. If Peter had come up with a sure and certain way to circumvent a trap entirely, then Marguerite was ready to kiss the girl.

Percy watched these thought processes and grinned.

"And as Armand knows how to work the wretched thing AND can do the calculations to get us to the right place the risk is minimal" he said. "Only that fickle dame, Fortune, might cause trouble in the state of the weather, which might just as well happen sailing on the Daydream; for I swear, my darling, that Ballooning is no more dangerous than sailing, merely that it is so very recent a pastime that the accidents are reported in more lurid detail; who even notices a yacht sinking with all hands? Such things happen at sea; we shrug, say it is very sad and move on. A balloon crash, that is a nine-day wonder; purely because the balloon itself is a nine-day wonder."

"You are quite correct, Percy" said Marguerite. "Why, I might almost wish I were accompanying you!" she added with determined gaiety.

"Why, my dear, so do I!" said Percy, laughing and kissing her. "I tell you what, little woman; unless the whole business gives me a terror of heights, we shall hire a balloon to celebrate our next wedding anniversary!"

Marguerite kissed him.

oOoOo

"How does one produce hydrogen my dear?" Peter asked her husband.

Armand Chauvelin smiled.

"THAT, fortunately, ma mie, is quite simple; a matter of pouring vitriol cautiously onto iron filings. The thing to be cautious about is that hydrogen is inflammable; and when mixed with air it is explosive. As some of the less well educated aviators found out when they tried to combine hydrogen with hot air."

Peter winced.

"I should have thought it might be wise to find out all about the substance one is dealing with" she said.

Armand shrugged.

"It would appear to be sensible" he said "But then I will remind you; these are aviators. Aviators are of the mindset to make the most avid English sportsman look cautious and filled with sense. I have made a study of balloons purely in case my political masters, in some distempered freak, wished me to ascend for any reason; that I might strike an aviator on the head and take over the operating of the balloon should I become too terrified by the antics of the supposed expert."

"You know SO much Armand!" said Peter in admiration.

"Yes, and it is no good looking at me like that ma mie, tempting though your beautiful eyes may be for I also know that Hodges will shortly be summoning us to eat" said her husband.

oOoOo

The officers of the Lilywhite Seventh might be guaranteed to turn up at a ball organised by a former officer of theirs recently sold out to marry and raise an heir to his own title; considered a perfectly reasonable reason to sell out. Indeed Captain Devinne – a recent purchase since he had only recently qualified to purchase a Captaincy for his time served as a subaltern – would have raised no eyebrows at all had he sold out to take up the serious duty of being Duke of Rudford and producing a son to take over the duties of being Earl of Welhaven; that he chose to stay in the army and even to purchase a Captaincy was more likely to raise eyebrows that he planned the army as a career like his friend in the thirty-third foot, Colonel Arthur Wesley.*

Johnny Devinne missed Arthur, who had been sent to India as a full colonel, recently promoted on seniority; they had both considered that the Netherlands campaign had been mismanaged; and Arthur had said that at least he now knew what NOT to do. Arthur was driven in the same way that Percy was driven; which had been perhaps what had attracted a man of impeccable social antecedents like Johnny to the scion of an impoverished Irish family of bog-gentry. However, Arthur's example had given Johnnie some inspiration at a time when he had been feeling disenchanted with the army; and a determination to get somewhere to improve it had gripped the young man. It was his calling, as previously the League had been his calling until he had been distracted from stern duty by the spurious call of Venus and her son's barbed arrows; and having been wounded in this new calling and subsequently forgiven by Percy he might meet any of his old companions in the eyes.

Johnny Devinne certainly knew Lord Kulmstead; they had been of the same set of young sportsmen who had gravitated towards Sir Percy Blakeney and had been members of the League together until Johnny's disgrace. They had never, however been intimates; something about the ego of Kulmstead had repelled the younger man. Kulmstead was older than the more youthful members of the League; around Sir Percy's and Sir Andrew Ffoulke's age, now into his late thirties and, thought Johnny with the scorn of a young man who had only been of age for two years and a half, looking much older. Presumably the meltingly attractive female on his arm was that same Desirée Candeille that he was to beware of.

One could not call Desirée Candeille beautiful; her features were far from the accepted arrangement of beauty, her skin rather dark and coarse in texture; but her full red lips, and the way she carried her head on its slender neck, the whole supple grace of her body and the soft lines created by the artless looking cascade of soft dark hair made her more attractive than many an accredited beauty. She was a woman who might look out of meltingly innocent eyes and a man would still know that she would know how to please him.

And withal she was a far cry from the golden and ivory perfection of Cécile de la Rodière – or rather Cécile Pradel. Johnny sighed slightly that she had preferred that yokel of a doctor to him; but then Pradel had never betrayed anyone. And perhaps that made him a better man. Johnny's thoughts about Cécile these days were of gentle sentimental regret; but truth to tell, her image was hazy before his mind's eye. But he must conjure up such thoughts of her as he may, and the golden beauty of Froggie's sister, a more vibrant version of Cécile, to make sure this dark temptress should not succeed with her melting looks in making him believe that black was white or that scarlet was not to be heeded.

oOoOo

St John Devinne was not the most observant of young men as a rule; but he was watching out for trouble here, now he had seen Kulmstead and his actress. And the way she drifted his way after a discussion with Kulmstead did not pass him by. She managed to let it seem that she was jostled so that she knocked against him, spilling her own wine on her gown with a startled cry and a look like a frightened deer.

Johnny worked on not permitting his mouth to curl in a sneer.

She was busy apologising.

He gave her a mechanical smile.

"It is a squeeze in here; easy enough to be jostled" he said. "WHITE wine fortunately; I should imagine that red would be the devil to get out of white cambric."

"Indeed yes!" her voice had that little foreign intonation that he had loved to hear in Cécile's voice; and yet the tones were not correct; the voice was trained but it did not have the unconscious breeding of Cécile's. There was that of the Paris streets about it that could not but repel. Johnny had thought much about his attitudes, his pride; had thought over and over that if it had not been Simon Pradel whom Francois de la Rodière had struck he must have been disgusted by his erstwhile friend's behaviour; and the uncensored thoughts of his fellow officers on such unrestrained French aristos had also worked upon his own incipient arrogance. But even so, he was not about to be taken in by any low actress.

She was gazing mournfully at her half empty glass; presumably she was expecting him to offer to get her another.

"I presume you have an escort who will see you home to change if you feel that your gown is too soiled?" he asked in a bored tone.

"Oh! As you said it is white wine; I shall not heed it" said Desirée with a brittle little laugh. "What magnificent uniforms you all wear! Why we ladies are put in the shade by your magnificent costumes!"

"It is the way of nature, madam" said Johnny "Only consider that it is the stag who has the magnificent antlers; the peacock who flaunts his tail at his drab brown little female."

She flushed, uncertain whether that was a barbed comment aimed at her; surely not! The women always hated her; the men found her irresistible – well apart from that _cochon_ Chauvelin. She flirted her fan and glanced up with her almond shaped eyes.

"A terrible state of affairs to be sure!" she declared "And that is why ladies of fashion wear feathers _sans doubte_ because we redress the wrongs that male birds do us! For we females are ever at the mercy of men who would cause us all the unhappiness in the world" she permitted her lip to tremble.

"Been offered a slip on the shoulder have you?" said Johnny who had no intention of making it easy.

"I have been wronged" said Desirée "By a man called Sir Percy Blakeney; and he but laughs at me!"

"I ain't surprised" said Johnny "Man with a wife like Marguerite Blakeney look twice at a little cocotte like you? Makes me want to laugh too. Now if you'd said that your friend KULMSTEAD over there had lied to you and ruined you, I might have believed you; untrustworthy bird Kulmstead."

"Well you can't talk" hissed Desirée "He told me YOU got kicked out of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel for treachery because you couldn't stand the arrogance of the so-called chief either."

"Then he lies" said Johnny, devoutly glad that Percy had permitted him to stand down and had not asked him to leave. "I left an organisation that should not be on YOUR base lips because I wanted to join the army; and if I had any difference of opinion with anyone inside that organisation such is in the past; any youthful indiscretions I committed are behind me. And if you come to me trying to accuse the finest man who ever walked of anything then I say that you lie; and if you spread any vile gossip I will see it proven that you lie; and I will moreover be happy to prove it upon your protector's body. Now if I were you my fine ladybird I would ask him to take you home to change your wine-spotted gown before I procure a glass of red wine to throw in his dishonour-spotted face. Do I make myself clear?"

Desirée had paled to a rather ugly colour.

"You make yourself clear" she said; and turned to make her way back to Kulmstead.

Johnny sighed. A clever fellow like Sir Andrew or Sir Percy himself – or probably Chauvelin – might have managed to draw the woman out about Kulmstead's plans; though seemingly the important ones were already known to Petronilla Chauvelin. But he could not dissemble on the spur of the moment; the last time he had dissembled had been when he had betrayed Pradel and risked betraying Percy and his friends and the taste of that was sour. Well, at least things were put right between him and Percy; Percy had accepted his atonement and his sincere repentance of all that he had done. Otherwise, difficult as it might have been to believe ill of Percy, he might yet have listened to the actress.

He owed Petronilla Chauvelin a debt for having seen fit to warn him.

oOoOo

_A/N *Arthur Wellesley, later to be Duke of Wellington did not change the spelling of his family name from Wesley to Wellesley until 1798_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Citizen Rateau was extremely pleased to have Master and Mistress spending the evening in with him; he had missed them during the day. Armand had broken the faithful hound of sprawling right across his lap and Rateau was now sufficiently certain of his loving owners to be content to sprawl on the floor with his head on the foot of one or other of them when they were sat in either salon or library.

This evening they were doing neither; because Percy needed all the accoutrements of a ragged band of sans culottes that could be mustered for the villagers and the Chauvelins were doing their part; it was not enough to have ragged clothing, the clothing must bear the look of Paris. Peter never threw anything away and had stored the rags the foundlings had owned in a chest, after laundering them well; and her part was to organise clothing for the children of the village. They must wear their own clogs to return in; and the smallest children in simple gowns would be no different to those from the city; but little touches might help to be convincing. A once blue jacket, a streaked and stained red petticoat and a whitish holland shirt made tricolour rosettes to wear on hats; and from red baize ripped from the old doors in the foundling house she might cut Phrygian caps in all sizes for young and old alike, mostly faded as indeed would be the caps of most patriots. Peter was adept at plain sewing as well as embroidery; and as Armand cut out for her she basted and seamed rapidly, aided by Lucille her maid who having been rescued from France herself was only too ready to add her industry to help others. A couple of coats might be given the slightly different cut that made them more obviously French; and Armand advised what he would look for to mark clothing as English. For the most part the peasants might wear their own clothing; but the extra touches would change them from the rural poor to the urban poor, such as the striped trousers and kirtles numberless émigré women were making at the behest of Froggie. Sir Percy wanted to strike before his striking might be looked for; and that meant the following night if possible.

Armand would go to Richmond on the morrow to get the information from a balloon that was to be arranged to ascend; and then those who were going would travel with a second balloon to the best place to ascend from according to Armand's calculations. As he suspected that they would have to travel some distance this might take as much as several days, to save a couple of weeks, for they would not be looked for in France until there had been time to cross the channel on the Daydream and then ride cross country for around two hundred miles at best from whichever port they disembarked. Even with horses arranged ahead this would take five days at least; and one might more readily expect eight. Riding _ventre à terre_ would soon draw attention to anyone. Instead of which, with a following wind, one might hope to make a balloon crossing in hours not days; long, cold hours that would try them all severely; but as Peter said, easier to bear than heat because one could always put more blankets on whereas stripping further than the skin was a trifle hard.

"Urinating" said Froggie, who had dropped in to see how they went. "No bushes up in a balloon"

"We shall have a chamber pot and I will turn my back for you gentlemen and you will turn your backs for me" said Peter.

"You are not about to dissuade her" said Armand. "And to me she is a talisman of success; and moreover too clever by half to leave behind. We neither of us like to risk one who is dear to us; but Peter is as much of the league as anyone. It is her choice if Percy feels she can play a useful part."

"Well to be honest he suggested dissuading her on the grounds of the physical hardships" said Froggie.

"Lud, Froggie, if he's taking a boy of fourteen he has no right to talk about physical hardships" said Peter "I'm hardier than any youth I wager!"

"Oh I'd not take a wager like that" said Froggie. "Dare say you are; had to mention it though. Coming as a boy are you?"

"I believe I'm to be a pretty drummer boy and the de Belletréflière boy a young recruit as I'm probably the slighter of the two" said Peter.

"You are; I met him" said Froggie "Reported to the Chief before I dropped in on you two. And here I find you; marriage à la mode; madame sewing, monsieur reaping" he quipped, for Armand was trimming edges.

"THAT Froggie was a significant pun and I salute it as I groan" said Peter. "Go away now; I have all but finished and tomorrow we must be to Richmond early."

oOoOo

The eminent man from the Royal Society arrived after the balloon on Richmond Hill was almost filled since they had been at the business from very early indeed; and after exchanging a few words with Sir Percy he looked at the wallowing thing that was the mostly distended gas bag with more interest than trepidation.

"Good of you to lay this on for me, Percy my boy!" he said "Are you sure that all you want in exchange is the dropping of a little of my data for you?"

"Egad, it's plenty, thank you old man!" said Percy "You want a trip in a balloon to look at the higher reaches of the atmosphere for your own research; and I want a wind speed and a precise direction of the wind at flying altitude; something for everyone, demme! Don't go too high on your own research; heard you can pass out up there."

"Yes, apparently the air gets thinner and less breathable at altitude; fascinating" said the Fellow of the Royal Society "One wonders at what point the air disappears and one meets the interplanetary aether; or whether phlogiston, as some will still have it exists, might be collected there, despite the researches of Robert Boyle and of Levoisier; and whether man will ever be able to explore to find out."

"Quite an adventure, wot?" said Percy.

"Oh yes indeed!" agreed the eminent man, clutching his box of equipment to him as he trotted over to the basket.

Percy gave a wry grin to himself over the eccentricities of scientific gentlemen; and the idea that any should still believe in phlogiston as a lighter than air substance so many years – fifteen or more it must be – after Levoisier had proven Boyle's theory that phlogiston was a spurious substance was quite amusing. Of course all those who had based their fame on theories surrounding the existence of phlogiston were eager to point out that a mere Frenchman could not be expected to understand as much science as a Fellow of the Royal Society; and were ready to sneer at the youth and inexperience of the up and coming men who understood that the reason that substances that had been burned became lighter was due to oxidation and not to the departure of some mysterious phlogiston. There had even been duels fought over it; excitable fellows scientists!

oOoOo

Armand and Peter had breakfasted at Blakeney Manor and met Felicien; who had bowed punctiliously to both.

"Sair Percy says that you are boze coming on ze trip in ze balloon; it is most amazingly intrepid of a lady to come; I 'ope you weel not be so fatigued zat it make a problem to our cause" he said as he kissed Peter's hand.

"Now, you know, laddie, as a seasoned campaigner myself I must say I was hoping that your fatigue would not cause us problems" said Peter in an amused tone.

"Madame la Vicomtesse de Chauvelin is equal to ANYTHING!" said Leonie, jealously. She might have been reproved by Peter, but she knew what she owed her; and besides this Felicien was an interloper. "She is as brave as a lion and – and stalwart too!" she added with a new word in her English vocabulary.

"Eh bien, petite, I thank you for the testimonial!" said Peter, dropping a kiss on Leonie's curls. "We must ask each other questions, Felicien and I, I believe; for each of us needs to know that the other is equal to coping; NOT a question I had to ask you, my dear, in that terrible escape because I could see you already knew how to cope. But I think we must trust Felicien to be a suitable ally, don't you, for he has made his way out of France; and though he was intended to escape he had still to hide his true identity, and deal with the dubious aid of the very silly spy who had been enlisted to aid him."

Felicien stared.

"Mam'selle Candeille is a spy?" he asked, stricken.

"Yes, Felicien; one was supposed to escape to bring word to trap both my husband and the Scarlet Pimpernel himself whom Sir Percy knows" Not knowing how confiding Percy had been and being fairly certain that he would appear only in disguise before the boy she was discreet; and glared at Leonie to make sure she said nothing. Leonie looked smug; having a secret from this boy was very comforting. Peter went on, "And so we take measures to circumvent the trap. One thing I will tell you; you will obey the chief to the absolute letter. His plans are worked out minutely; but he is a great man who can modify them if anything untoward might happen. Obey him to the letter and the plan succeeds. Disobey him even minutely and there is a chance of failure. He knows the abilities of all his followers absolutely; and knows what he may ask of them; and what he may not for the limit of their capabilities. You note the chief does not have any qualms about expecting me to make a balloon ascent. He knows my capabilities."

Felicien bowed.

"I understand; I apologise; you look very frail."

"Lud, it's this froth of white Valenciennes lace on my gown" said Peter "It's enough to make even Sir Percy look ethereal."

"THAT ma mie is a quite monstrous concept" said Chauvelin.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Leonie and Felicien were eager to view the balloon ascent once it was ready to rise; as were half the inhabitants of Richmond, standing around across the river and as close as they might get; and all the labourers on the home farm taking French leave to come and gawp in bucolic wonder at a spectacle they had never seen before. Peter considered it a spectacle one might take a long time to tire of, that a bundle of silk should become gradually afloat, wobbling like a blancmange as the gas within was unequal to filling it to capacity, then becoming gradually the taut, smooth balloon shape; then at a shout from the crew, released from the tethers that held the basket to ascend gracefully upwards. This balloon was on a rope tether that unwound smoothly and gracefully from its prepared coils; the balloon was not to be going anywhere! It would pause briefly at what Chauvelin had suggested would be a probable altitude their own balloon might reach with a heavily laden basket; then when the required information had been sent down, the anchor-man would remove the rope brake on the tether to permit a rise to higher altitude for the experiments of the eminent man.

Once the square of silk that was the parachute had descended gracefully like a piece of outsize thistledown bearing the small metal canister with the wind speed calculations and direction, Chauvelin headed inside with it. Peter and Felicien accompanied him.

"I 'ave studied some mathematics sair, if I may be of assistance" said the boy.

"We may as well speak French" said Chauvelin. "You may watch and learn; check my calculations for your own satisfaction and to make sure I make no error. That will be of assistance."

If the boy had hoped to be given some calculations to make on his own he made no signs of disappointment and nodded his head in acquiescence. He had been well trained; and was no spoiled prodigy, thought Peter, which was all to the good. She too checked her husband's calculations; one reason she had come in. She did not understand all that he was doing – and to learn what he was doing was another reason to watch him – but she could check the figures.

Chauvelin had a huge chart showing France and southern England laid out on the desk on which he was plotting lines showing the wind direction.

"I don't know where Percy got this, but it is of quite military quality" he said.

"THAT explains much" said Peter "Froggie handed Percy a roll and said that Johnny had filched it out of Horseguards."

"Good God! Then I must be careful with it for he will want to put it back before it is missed!" said Armand. "Here, Felicien, run to the kitchen and ask for some bread; roll it into a bread pellet for that will remove the pencil marks I have made on the map when I have done all my checking. And I believe I have my answer; it looks as though we must leave from Rye or rather, for secrecy, the Romney Marshes."

"Armand, would you care to extend that line further into England?" said Peter "Because I think you'll find it goes into London – look it extends to Bushey; might not Prince William permit us to launch from there, which will also be an amusement for his young children?"

"Well he and Mrs Jordan are well pleased with you, Peter" said Armand; for Peter preferred the king's third son to the Prince of Wales and liked his mistress who resided at Bushey Park with their two young sons. "I will suggest it to Percy. It adds a couple of hours to the journey but I have to say it makes it safer from being observed, and moreover saves more time than that in the travel to the coast. We might then safely leave before dusk; and hope to cross the French coast at around nine at night when it should be substantially dark. And then we will arrive even so after dawn; but we may hope that none will be very vigilant at such a time and will not be looking up. The balloon is to be fitted with a device of my own design; a simple fitment on the release nozzle with a flexible hose of canvas treated with the same coating of rubber dissolved in turpentine that the balloon silk is treated with, so that we may steer to some extent by release of gas to push us the other way following the principles of Sir Isaac Newton. Were it not for the efficacy of the Semaphore I should suggest risking leaving earlier that we crossed the coast by daylight so that we might arrive before dawn; but I would not guess there might not be someone astute enough to guess what we are about and use the Semaphore to send word to Orleans to mobilise and pursue the balloon for we shall pass over Paris itself and Orleans will be in sight on the last leg of the journey."

"We might drop in altitude as we come close that we not be visible for as far; Sir Percy has realised we must travel part of the journey in daylight and has purchased a balloon all of white undyed silk and decreed that the basket be painted white, in the same way that the topmasts of ships are painted white, because they do not then show readily against the sky" said Peter "Or so Sir Percy says; apparently it works better than painting them blue."

"One lives and learns" said Armand. "Perhaps then we might risk leaving earlier to cross the French coast at eight or even seven thirty; for people will be scurrying to finish the last chores of the day on farms, and may be getting inside to eat supper in the towns; and we should miss Calais by some considerable margin, where those expecting us are most like to be vigilant."

"Vigilant for ships, _mon coeur_" said Peter. "Looking out to sea; not so much upward. If we may rise high to start with and descend once we are over the coast we shall also be a smaller seeming object less easily spotted"

"That is quite true" said Armand. "I shall take this to Percy _tout de suite_!" he added getting up "For there is no time to lose if permission is to be secured from the prince."

oOoOo

George Fitzclarence at two was old enough to realise that something exciting was going on; his brother Henry was just a babe in arms, and Mrs Jordan was now visibly pregnant again. Dorothy Jordan beamed at Peter as she emerged, having changed into her French drummer boy costume. Mrs Jordan had declared that the Scarlet Pimpernel and his League must of COURSE be free of the house to change into suitable accoutrements; and she was looking forward to seeing Peter as a boy, being so famed herself for her breeches roles on stage.

"Why my dear Madame de Chauvelin! You are a perfect boy!" she declared "And the mannerisms too! Had I not known that it was you and recognised your face I should have been quite taken in I do declare!"

"Why thank you Mrs Jordan" said Peter. "Dear me, I shall have to pull caps with his highness however; he has pulled a quizzing glass on me and is firing off a number of broadsides in the matter of his gaze!"

Mrs Jordan laughed.

"He does appreciate a pretty woman; and knowing that you are one makes him appreciate such of your figure as is not concealed. William, Madame de Chauvelin is ready to return your barrage of quizzing _pour l'honneur du pavilion_!"

"I have to say I should go further than a token broadside and then haul down my colours as that phrase implies!" said Peter. "Your Highness is a typical sailor."

Prince William laughed.

"As you have said before m'dear!" he said. He was a far better looking figure than his older brother; though the family tendency to embonpoint threatened, one could never even call him portly, let alone fat and he had enough height to carry off being a little on the fleshy side. His courtly air and address and sense of humour meant that Peter could understand the attraction he held for Dorothy Jordan; but she was herself quite immune to it, which endeared her to the prince's actress mistress.

It was a pleasant evening in the grounds of Bushey Park; and the balloon filling was going very well. Sir Percy had managed to acquire sufficient hydrogen from a number of sources, one of which, under the patronage of Prince William, was an abandoned secret Naval source experimenting with observation balloons to be launched from first-raters, that had been abandoned for the great danger of hydrogen around the sparks from cannon. The hydrogen generating equipment that had been produced with great enthusiasm was languishing in a warehouse and was, Prince William had said, just asking to be used. He might have opposed the war against France in the first instance; but he was certainly committed to the ideals of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and once war was joined was enthusiastic to do all he might to help. Another hydrogen generator had been acquired from balloonists who made their way in the conducting of experiments by exhibiting their ascents; and the hire of their equipment was a welcome boost to their income as Percy had acquired the necessary iron turnings and vitriol for himself. They were the balloonists who had sold their balloon to Percy too, willing to put off their next ascent in the time it made to make another balloon for being given well over the odds for the cost of the same.

The great silken bag was starting to fill; and Armand checked his pocket watch. With the efficient naval equipment they should be ready to leave in a little over an hour; right on schedule. He smiled, pleased; they should then touch down with half an hour to go before dawn. He had a map of France in his head; and was pleased, not for the first time, that he had near total recall that he might readily navigate by memory, looking down at the strange view of nocturnal France beneath their silent passage, coming like the Valkyries on their flying steeds to bear away the souls of the chosen from the battlefield, or perhaps like Aphrodite snatching her son Aeneas in the person of the Duc de Belletréflière and bearing him off as if by divine magic; save that this plan would shield the villagers too as the Greek gods would not, being too selfish to care about the common man. Assuming all went well.

Sir Percy was an excellent planner, reflected Armand, and so too was he; together they were formidable. And Peter's flashes of brilliance added much too; the idea of using a balloon was perfect. It seemed odd that such an obvious looking monster would be less visible in the upper atmosphere; but it made sense that it was dark objects that showed up against the sky; and now he came to think about it, Percy had the Daydream's topmasts painted white.

There were to be five of them going; Percy, Froggie, the boy Felicien, Peter and Armand himself; he, the boy and Peter would weigh no more between them than two grown men; and if Percy weighed in heavy Froggie was slender if not as short as Armand. The basket would be a trifle overweight and would rise sluggishly; but they did not need to go as high as experimenters wished, and the gasbag was large, almost thirty feet, and should easily deal with their combined weights.

He grinned as he adjusted the tricolour scarf about his waist, recalling the last time he had worn one in earnest.

Oh yes, Percy was right; there was sport in this as well as the ability to do what was right!

oOoOo

_A/N I invented the secret naval plan; but it is the sort of cockeyed idea some nutter at the Admiralty might have been persuaded to listen to without thinking through the implications of hydrogen anywhere near slow matches. The painting of the upper masts of ships white to make them less obvious against the sky is genuine however. _


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

It was very uncomfortable putting on extra clothes in the hot summer evening; and the five were soon sweating profusely.

"Is this really necessary?" asked Felicien. "Can it really get so cold as all that?"

"It will be colder than you can imagine right now" said Armand "I who have ascended before tell you; you will be glad of the extra layers and do not neglect to put on the fur lined gloves for if you lose feeling in your fingers, not only will you be unable to pull them on later but you may risk losing them altogether to frostbite."

"I SAY!" said Froggie. "And that's why we also have hot bricks wrapped in blankets?"

"It's mostly for the boy and Peter" said Armand "Slight people lose body heat faster than more heavily built ones; but you may yet be glad of a hot brick. When they cool down – as I fear they may do quite rapidly – we may put them over the side as ballast like the sand bags."

"And hope not to hit some inoffensive French peasant johnny" said Froggy.

"I fear the inoffensive French peasants, who should be long abed when we pass over unless engaged on nefarious purpose, will have to take their chances" said Armand.

oOoOo

The great yellow balloon – the inescapable effect of the varnish on the white silk – billowed above them in the gondola. Armand gave the order to release; and Peter, looking over the edge of the basket felt as though the earth fairly streaked away from them as they shot up. Armand held his breath as he hoped that his calculations had been correct concerning the amount of lift they required and the amount of ballast to keep them from going too high; and gave a sigh of satisfaction as the balloon stabilised at what his barometer confirmed by air pressure to be about a mile high. He had hoped to stabilise somewhere between five and six thousand feet; not the record height for balloon ascents but plenty high enough to give them room to manoeuvre. The wind here was good; and would probably pick up after dark. He held up the instruments he had borrowed from the Royal Society to ensure that he was within the margin of error of the morning's calculations; and scribbled rapidly on a block of paper he had brought, making little satisfied grunts.

"All good?" asked Percy, his breath steaming in the cold.

"Couldn't be better; the wind's picked up" said Armand. "We might make it by two in the morning if we're lucky and the breeze remains steady. I fancy there'll be a thunderstorm in London by the morning though; the air's been oppressively hot all day and this increasing wind I wager indicates a change in the weather."

"Will it affect us?" asked Percy.

"Only if we get struck by lightening" said Armand. "And I don't think the storm is THAT imminent."

"Lud, cold, lack of air AND the chance of being struck by lightning? What are you trying to do, Armand old man, wipe out all the Holtes at once?" asked Froggie.

Percy gave his quaint laugh.

"Oh I fancy that Armand's calculations will make us as safe as it is possible to be" he said "I advise dozing keeping close together wrapped in the rugs; I'll take a first watch, Armand now you've checked all is well; I know what part of the coast we are to cross and I may watch out as well as you. Then you will be fresh for the hard part."

Armand nodded; Percy was quite correct.

"I will look out a few minutes more if you please chief" said Peter "It is so exciting; looking down on England as though peering down upon a map, but more detailed than any map may be; all laid out before us and so silent, nothing of the bustle of London to be heard though there it is right below us. Why I can see the streets laid out!"

Percy laughed and handed her a telescope. Peter almost squealed in delight and peered long through it; then surrendered it to Felicien who did not like to ask but plainly hoped to see for himself.

"I have a night sight too for when we get closer" said Percy "But you must be aware that it will make things appear inverted."

"Why?" asked Peter.

"Because a normal telescope has an extra or third lens to turn the image up the right way" said Armand suspecting that it might not have occurred to Percy to have wondered "And every lens cuts down on light. I shall teach you optics ma mie in due course. The night sight has but two lenses to ensure as much light as possible from the little that there is available might enter the eye. I fancy as this is the dark of the moon that we shall not find much use of a night sight; but one never knows. I have never flown at night, only at dawn when the earth was surprisingly easy to see in more detail than I might have expected. Do not lean too far, _Mignonne, _ for you are not wearing a parachute."

"Demme, yes; do show SOME decorum, Otter!" said Froggie. "You may wish to addle your brain with science and all that sort of rubbish; but you'll addle it a dem sight more if you land head first in Hanover Square!"

Peter grinned and moved back; Armand had used a light and teasing tone but she had heard concern in his voice.

"I will come away and doze now" she said "And you shall keep me warm _ma coeur_."

"Lud! They're off again" said Froggie.

oOoOo

The flight over France was long and cold; and though plentifully supplied with blankets, none of the travellers could truthfully admit to being comfortable at all. Armand merely dozed, his arms about Peter to keep her as warm as possible until the light went from the sky; then he tucked her up as best he might.

"Go and lie down with the others, Percy; you're looking pinched with cold" he said. "I'll take over; and I'm not an idiot, I shall come and replenish my warmth for ten minutes or so every half hour."

Percy nodded.

"It's out of my ken now" he said quietly. "Is that Paris?"

Armand looked down.

"By the number of lights I should say so; _Parbleu_! There is a man who strikes a flint and tinder I wager, that bright tiny spark; how harmless, even attractive the city looks from up here!" he said.

"Proves how deuced deceptive looks may be" said Percy dryly. "I fancy we may be drifting a little further east than we may be wishing to go."

"I agree" said Armand "But I wish to check also the barometer; yes, as I thought we have lost some height. Not much; but we shall lose more if I turn direction. Be so good, Percy, before you rest, as to stand by with those sand bags; I do not wish them to land on Paris but I fear we have no choice."

"They'd notice less, old man, if instead of throwing them out intact I emptied the sand over the side; a rain of sand not a heavy drop of sandbag" suggested Percy.

"And for such simple pieces of brilliance the reason revealed why you are the chief" said Armand. "Empty them then at will; and I will attend to the valve and the pipe."

This piece of course correction and altitude stabilising being attended to, Percy lay down; and Armand reflected that one might see more of the dark earth in the glow of the stars than one might have expected. It was harder than looking on a map; taking in all the features at once and working out where one might be was more challenging than he had anticipated; but he had little doubt of his ability to bring them to the right place. Seeing how brightly the lights of the towns showed up was an unexpected advantage and he checked the windspeed again and hummed 'Ca Ira' absently under his breath.

"Armand" said Froggie in a pained tone "Don't you know any better songs that that wretched piece?"

"It seemed somehow appropriate" said Armand. "I'll be damned if I sing 'God Save the King' because I don't give a rush for the English king. And you can't ask me to sing 'Il pleut, il pleut Bèrgere' which became so popular again after the Austrian woman was decapitated."

"Demmed if I could figure out why it did become popular though" said Froggie.

"It's an allusion to Marie Antoinette playing at being a shepherdess; and the rain and storm is the coming revolution" said Percy. "I have no objection to the tune he hums; it's only some of the words stick in the craw. If I was you old man, I'd stick to something innocuous like 'Black Jack Davy' or 'Three Ravens' or some other folk music. How are we doing after the course correction?"

"Well on track and an hour ahead of schedule near enough" said Armand with satisfaction. "And you cannot think that my efforts are less musical than that cub snoring."

Felicien was indeed giving vent to small snoring noises.

"Ah, the resilience of the young" said Percy. "Is Peter awake?"

"I doubt it" said Armand "She has a remarkable facility to take her rest when she may. I have learned the trick over years; it comes to her naturally."

"Or it's just the natural resilience of the young" laughed Percy. "Well having no resilience of that kind myself I am going to sleep; so please refrain from refrain, wot!"

Armand laughed.

"As you command chief" he said.

oOoOo

The balloon was slowly sinking; and Armand emptied two more sandbags until he was confident that they were close enough to their objective for it not to matter; as they sank, navigating became in a way harder because he could see less of the ground; but there was more detail to be made out and the topography of the ground might be better perceived. Ahead lay the great mass of the Massif Central; the village for which they were making lay on the plain just as the Loire left the foothills of that great mass; and Armand Chauvelin was devoutly glad that he had not to risk taking the balloon into or over that region, for he doubted that they were much above two thousand feet above ground level now; and the upper peaks of that folded and rocky region rose above a thousand feet in places. It was time to manoeuvre more now.

"Peter" said Armand.

She was awake in an instant.

"What need I do?" she said "Oh Armand! May I relieve myself first?"

"That is why I have awakened you in good time ma mie" said Armand "Knowing that such is the first waking thought you generally have unless you have other more urgent needs"

Peter gave a wicked little chuckle and he knew she blushed slightly.

She did what was necessary and emptied the results over the side.

"I am at your disposal" she said demurely.

"Alas, ma mie that we have not time" he teased "I would that you hold the nozzle just so; and when I say stop, turn off the valve. I need to keep a look out. Beware; it will wriggle like a live thing from the pressure of the gas."

Peter nodded and took the hose firmly. The degree to which it fought and tried to whip from her hands was surprising; but she held it firm; and turned off the valve to her husband's command.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"France" said Armand then relented "We are almost there – look down there, ma mie, at the silvery ribbon of the Loire; we are turned a trifle more south to counteract the strong westerly winds we have encountered; and we must be quite quiet now for I believe we are low enough to be heard as we sweep over the heads of the pickets; as we must do any minute. If you will awaken the others and indicate silence it will be well."

Peter hastened to obey, Percy and Froggie alert immediately, Felicien needing a firm hand over his mouth until he was sensible of where he was. All were much warmer now for the drop in altitude; and readily came out of the blankets.

"Felicien" said Armand softly "Is that the chateau?"

The boy gasped.

"Yes sir; it is. You have done it!" his voice rose and Percy clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Hush lad; voices carry far on the night air" he said softly. "Armand that was a piece of perfect navigation; where do you mean to land?"

"Right in front of the chateau" said Armand calmly as though that had been the intent all along. "Percy, if you will stand to hold the hose and direct it behind us and let out the gas in a long burst I believe we should fetch up almost on the doorstep."

"WHAT a shame I did not bring my callin' cards" said Percy.

"No one would receive you at this time of night unless there was a ball on anywise" said Froggie.

And then the basket was grazing the ground inside the gates of the chateau, landing with something of a bump on the front lawn and they sprawled headlong as it fell over.

"Keep venting gas!" said Armand in an urgent whisper.

"It's Percy's speciality" said Froggie. "I say! Anyone at home?"

Naturally the quips were spoken in an undertone; and Armand smiled in total happiness. The jokes relieved the tension; spoke of relief that he HAD got the calculations right and been blessed too with a degree of good fortune; and those quips, too, reiterated the camaraderie.

The League were his family as he had never had family before!


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

A rooster crowed.

"Egad, Percy, why did you see fit to bring Kulmstead?" said Armand.

Percy laughed.

"Why my dear fellow!" he said. "I fancy that if that is our dear one time friend he must have brought himself!" he clapped Armand on the shoulder in warm pleasure that the Frenchman was learning so readily to join in the gay banter that was so very much a part of the League.

The five were busy; the balloon must be cut up, and the basket reduced to firewood. The panels of the balloon might be hidden for now; and with the door of the chateau standing wide open, Peter's laconic suggestion that nobody would wonder at fabric folded and stored in a linen press was quickly accepted by Percy. They might have time to burn it later; now a fire would only draw unwelcome attention to them. Hiding in plain sight was as good a solution as any.

The basket when reduced to faggots might be hidden in an outhouse with other stored wood, the withies that wove it concealed in with abandoned firewood, or if none remained, looking like the last remnants of what had been used. The white paint was on the outside only; a limewashed hurdle, perhaps, broken up for being old and damaged.

It took until the carmine streaks of Aurora's cloak dyed the sky with their vivid hues to reduce the balloon; but by the time it was light enough to see easily, no trace of their mode of transport remained.

"And now to pay a visit to your mother and uncle" said Percy merrily to Felicien.

"Yes chief; pray follow me" said the boy. Having arrived had really buoyed up his spirits; he was quite cheerful and more trusting now that the rest of the plan might work. He led them to a gamekeeper's cottage.

"We removed here; it was empty" he said "Uncle Alois and I mended such as needed mending and maman sewed rougher looking garments for us and no soldiery has questioned us any more harshly than the rest of the village. It meant that my uncle was able to keep his hounds with him and not have to destroy them since a gamekeeper might be expected to have hounds; the soldiers requisitioned any rideable horses in any case; and we have hope that the poor beasts might be presented to an officer who will appreciate their quality."

His tone suggested that it was a bit of a forlorn hope; and Froggie twitched half an eyebrow in recalling that the young Marquis Francois de la Rodière had been so careful of his hounds and horses that he had called out Doctor Pradel, taking him from duties physicking the villagers, to see to his animals. However this Duc and his family seemed to care for their people too; and Froggie, who loved all his animals, could not fault a man for hoping that his mounts would be well used and for wanting to keep his hounds.

oOoOo

The woman who opened the door still in a nightgown and with a cloak wrapped around her gasped to see the boy; and cried out when she saw the uniforms worn by those with him..

"Felicien_? Ah mon Dieu! Les soldats!"_ she cried.

"No maman, these are our friends from England; dressed the part to save all the village!" said Felicien enthusiastically "They are from the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel!"

She looked doubtfully at the dapper officer that was Armand Chauvelin, the hulking and villainous looking sergeant that was Percy and the scarcely less villainous appearing Froggie and Peter.

"There is a comprehensive plan which will both save the villagers and remove yourself and your brother to England" said Armand "If we might come within and speak with your brother that we may know the dispositions of such soldiery as are based in the village we may then proceed."

"But of course; pray, come within" said Madame, for such one must call her of courtesy. "My brother sleeps little; he is attending to the animals."

She bustled about in domestic duties to which she had never been trained, aided by a single faithful maidservant; and laid out bread and cheese and water from the well in a carafe and milk in a jug.

"We eat well enough albeit plain fare" she said "My brother has a gun and as supposed gamekeeper shoots; we share the meat and the villagers share their bread. I have learned to milk cows and to churn; and my brother grows some small vegetables in our little plot of land. One becomes a trifle tired of such monotonous fare but yet gives thanks to Le Bon Dieu that we at least have plentiful food. My brother has observed the efficiency of Dutch and English farming methods and introduced many innovations, draining the wetter fields and introducing a rotation of crops using four fields."

"Yes by jove; excellent system" said Froggie. "Turnips, barley, clover and wheat. Fodder for the jolly old animals – and turnips are jolly good eating too, wot – clover to fatten the cattle and grains. O'course the Dutch sow their clover amongst their wheat and turn the cows onto it to eat the clover and add to the land doing what cows do best, by jove! But the Dutch have limited land."

"Yes indeed" said Madame. "You will permit that I go and dress while you wait for my brother? Marie will see to your needs."

The company rose to bow as she took her leave; and she was not gone long before the Duc came in. He halted in shock to see soldiers sitting at his table.

"_Mon oncle_, these are the friends I have been to England to find" said Felicien. "They have a plan that will rescue everyone!"

"You would take the whole village to England? Surely Felicien has not made it clear that there are quite three hundred souls here!" cried the Duc "Are you of such ability? I had hoped that the children….."

Percy gave his quaint laugh.

"Oh we do not need to take them to England; we only need to make the authorities BELIEVE that they have been taken to England" he said. "They will return here in a different guise; and continue as before. But you and madame and the boy WILL come with us to England; for remaining will be unsafe for your villagers as well as for yourselves."

oOoOo

There was a small contingent of soldiery in the village; who, because of the picket around it, said the Duc in some disdain, did very little and were about as alert as a forty-year-old donkey gorged on carrots and sleeping on a summer's day.

"Lud, that'd be the life" said Froggie irrepressively. His sister poked him.

"And you'd be bored in about an hour" she said.

"More'n likely m'dear" said Froggie.

Felicien had gone to spread the word that the new soldiers were friends and that the populace should hold themselves in readiness to do exactly what they were told and that all sabots should be mended and ready. The peasantry rose at good hour to attend to their animals; the soldiery fell out of bed when the smell of bacon roused them at the small estaminet.

They were to be roused a little early this morning; for Armand led his small band up the road singing _Ça ira_ lustily with Peter beating an enthusiastic if not very accurate ruffle upon her drum.

The sergeant of the half dozen men fell out of the door in a nightgown – it was not very clean – and his hat; his musket in hand.

Armand stopped and surveyed him.

"Citizen corporal, I shall see you and your men on parade in ten minutes properly clad" he sneered.

"Uh, Citizen Captain, it's sergeant" said the man.

"That's WAS sergeant, citizen corporal" said Armand coldly.

oOoOo

The parade of the six rather frowsty soldiers would not have disgraced the children of ploughboys playing at being soldiers; but estimable examples of the Revolutionary Army they were not. Armand walked down the line of them, raising an eyebrow here, staring at a missing button there and then demanded that each surrender his musket to his own sergeant – who might look villainous but who was also quite smart, certainly by comparison to these men, and whose weaponry spoke of much care and attention.

Once Percy had declared the weapons in a parlous state, Armand addressed the sweating soldiers.

"You are a disgrace to your uniform! You are flabby and unfit, unkempt, unready for duty and if you are not lice-ridden it is only because any good French louse would be ashamed to be seen on your bodies! Were you fit for active service it is conceivable that English lice might be less nice in their choice of host but I doubt it! You are not fit to carry out the glorious orders of the republic that I have come to bring to you! How do you expect to march this rabble of peasantry to Orleans for summary execution as an awful warning to their foolish and outmoded bourgeois ideals? Why you would faint on the way of exertion! It is my duty to get you fit; so you will run around the square here under the orders of the sergeant until he sees fit to permit you to rest; then you will launder and mend your uniforms. But before any of that, you will clean your muskets thoroughly and spend time on target practice. Don't you KNOW that we are expecting an attack by the Scarlet Pimpernel?"

"Please citizen captain, will not the pickets wonder if there is fire?" asked one of the soldiers nervously "They may think the Scarlet Pimpernel, whom all know is the devil incarnate, has somehow got through!"

"An excellent thought youngster – what is your name?" asked Armand.

"Jean Rouget, citizen captain" said the youth.

"You are now citizen brevet-corporal Rouget" said Armand "And you shall be excused running round the square for you shall instead go now to run around the picket and warn the citizen guards that there will be musket fire that ought to sound like ordered practise but that I suspect will sound like farmboys taking fright in the dark for fear of invading English and the _vice Anglais_. I did not realise that I should need to DRILL the lot of you; but lad!" he spoke quietly "You may save the faces of your companions by declaring that it seemed a good idea to drill."

"THANK you citizen captain!" said the youth.

Percy nodded approval having blenched at the idea of the young man talking about orders from the newcomers.

"The _vice Anglais?" _ he murmured "I should have thought that with the devil incarnate loose it would be the least of their worries…..nicely done; the right mix of contempt and coarseness. I had not thought of taking so much time as you seem to intend…."

"We are still many days ahead of the date at which they will look for us" said Armand "To complete your plan as I am guessing the details to be we need the confidence of this group; and it gives the village time to prepare carts for the elderly and youngsters, mend sabots for walking in and so on. Does it displease you? I can claim an order by telegraph if you wish to hurry, but I think no officer would risk this shambling group of hopeless gudgeons to guard a hen house let alone a group of peasants who might still conceal in their numbers a Duc and his family."

Percy considered; and nodded.

"I was a trifle dismayed that we might get them on the move at all; I shall run them about, and then tell them that they might rest after getting their uniforms into order as we march tomorrow three hours after dawn."

"They'll be ready to cry" grinned Armand "And will certainly be in no fit state to question anything. Peter shall chat to Jean Rouget and ask if he knows when the pickets arrived and how much they know about the guards within. If, as I suspect, they came later and have not been able to fraternise much, then our presence will not be questioned by the pickets; which being so it will not be questioned by our shambling army of turnip heads."

"But my dear fellow! How can you miscall them so? Turnips are useful!" declared Percy gaily.

_A/N The turnips referred to are not of this time the white and rather tasteless turnips so called today but the yellow turnip now dubbed the swede or in Scotland, as it always has been, the neep. I believe that both kinds are known in America as rutabagas._


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

That the children were sobbing in fear and the women half afraid that Felicien was wrong and the men sullen and bewildered and half scared to trust and uncertain where they were to be taken in any case, the crowd of peasants were as truculent appearing as if they really were to be taken to Orleans to be guillotined.

"Why are they preparing carts?" asked the erstwhile sergeant sullenly.

"Because I ordered them to do so" said Armand. "It will not look good on my record if I fail to get all of them to Orleans in one piece because the elderly, the infirm, the children and the pregnant women die on the march; I was not intending to make of this some holiday stroll, corporal; it is a forced march and we shall maintain a good speed. I do not want to get caught on the road by the English devil even if you do" and he peered suspiciously at the man "If I find you are taking English gold, be assured that YOUR head will roll in forfeit" he added menacingly.

"Oh NO citizen captain! I swear! I know nothing of the accursed Englishman and his diabolical plans!" cried the man sweating.

"Well let us hope that you are right" said Armand silkily "Some might accuse you of deliberate neglect of your men that they be so unfit and ill conditioned as if you had been paid to be deliberately lax."

The corporal assured him with much swearing and asseveration that he had never had such an idea and merely earned himself a blistering excoriation for exhorting Jesu and the saints to be witnesses to his honesty.

Armand was rather enjoying the role played in the spirit of overacting. He said to Percy,

"I had to bring up anyone short if they used any oath on the Deity or saints if I heard such in my former life where God had been banned; in order to safeguard mine own position, whether I actually cared or not by whom anyone might swear. After all those who swear by anyone or anything are either such simple souls who believe that it makes a difference; or those so old in the ways of lying that they might swear readily by anything and mean it no more than if they did not bother in the first place. This numbskull is of the simple kind; one might knock on his skull for days and never get an answer because there's nobody at home."

Percy laughed.

"It's very convincing" he said. "Are we ready to move out?"

"Indeed" said Armand "You to be rearguard with our people; I shall walk with the citizen corporal at the front. We shall set a good pace too" he said with an unkind grin.

Most of the carts were pulled by donkeys or by hand; and the village carpenter had been told to bring his tools. And Armand Chauvelin set a brisk pace that soon brought them to the picket.

Armand handed over a packet of papers to the lieutenant in charge.

"Citizen Lieutenant; you will see I am a day late executing these orders but there was a problem that arose" he said. "I take full responsibility; and I make little doubt that we shall make up time on the road."

The lieutenant read the written orders that directed the captain to wait until the 25 Prairial de an IV and then with all despatch to take the entire village to Orleans for execution.

"I was not told of this, citizen captain" he said "Nor that a captain had been assigned within to whom I would naturally have reported had I known."

"You had orders not to leave your post; you would have been in dereliction of your duty if you HAD reported" said Armand coldly "As was made clear on the Semaphore message that reiterated MY orders. What, are you telling me you have not received it?"

"Your pardon, citizen captain, but I have not!" cried the unfortunate lieutenant "The semaphore does not extend all over the country yet; a message would have to be brought; many things can go wrong; the messenger hurt, his horse lamed…."

"Or he lies dead drunk in a country estaminet!" snarled Armand. "Or _– tonnere_! Waylaid by the Scarlet Pimpernel! This village, emptied as it is still constitutes a trap; do not release your vigilance for an instant!"

The lieutenant saluted snappily.

"I shall not do so, citizen captain!" he declared.

"Very well; I have been told that you may expect a contingent of volunteer sans culottes from Orleans who are making their way here at their own pace; whether they have any escort or not I do not know" said Armand "But they will have papers signed by Citizen Barras to prove who they are."

"And if it is a large band it is hardly likely to be the English in any case" laughed the Lieutenant "And then all we have to do is keep them in."

"Precisely; though be vigilant in any case and scrutinise the papers most carefully" said Armand. "The leader of the English is said to be a hulking great brute of a man who makes my good Citizen Sergeant Lebrun here look more like a delicate flower than the Englishman's soubriquet."

The citizen lieutenant was moved to laugh at that witticism for Citizen Sergeant Lebrun was indeed built on generous lines!

"Eh bien, the Englishman must be a very giant; the citizen sergeant is not small!" he said.

"He is half Dutch" Armand shrugged. "Good at what he does, but between two officers solid bone between the ears."

The citizen lieutenant laughed conspiratorially. And then they were on their way, on the twenty sixth day of Prairial in the fourth year of the revolutionary calendar running late for minor administrative problems such as any lieutenant might sympathise with, even if he might privately wonder it the problem that arose was the citizen captain having discovered the ci-devant Duc's wine cellar and finding a need to sleep it off for celebrating too soon that the boring duty of watching peasants was to be over.

The three hundred peasants trudged out of the gate, the women weeping and taking many a backward glance at what they believed would be their last sight of the only home most of the villagers had ever known.

"Y'know" said Peter to Froggie as they hustled along stragglers "Somehow I don't think we're going to make it to Almack's tomorrow"

"Not going to… well of course we aren't going to!" said Froggie "Be thrown out under the dress code!"

oOoOo

The sad little procession marched until Armand called a halt to eat. The soldiery ate apart from the peasants; and Armand unpacked wine he declared was from the Duc's cellars.

"I thought we had already drunk it all!" said the erstwhile sergeant bewildered.

"Well you left all the good stuff that was behind the false wall" said Armand.

"There was a false wall? _Sacre bleu_! How cunning and false are these aristos!"

"Indeed citizen; let us drink to the fact, in effect, that they may be cunning but for their inbreeding they do not have the shrewd understanding of the men of the people!" said Armand.

The citizen corporal was ready to drink to that; and to success; and to many another thing, as were his men until all were snoring helplessly upon the ground.

"Good stuff that laudanum" said Peter.

"But how HARD their heads are that it took so much!" declared Armand "Percy, I had wondered if you had overdone it; but I see you had the quantity judged to a nicety."

"Practice" said Percy modestly.

oOoOo

_A/N 26Priarial an IV is the 14__th__ of June 1796 and it is a Tuesday. Hence the comments about Almack's which always opened on a Wednesday. I hate the Revolutionary Calendar; it makes my brain hurt. _


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The peasants were bewildered and Percy jumped up on a cart.

"Good people of Belletréflière" he said "Listen to me."

"I come to bury Robespierre not to praise him" murmured Peter to Armand.

"Hush ma mie; it is not seemly to parody Shakespeare over the person of Sir Percy" said Armand.

"Thank you Armand" said Sir Percy "You are all, good people, bewildered over what goes on; and now I must give you orders to act as you have never acted before, to surpass any plays you have put on to the glory of Le Bon Dieu; for your lives depend upon it. The carpenter here will take the extra planks of wood that lie concealed in the donkey cart under your patient _grandmères_ to change the looks of your carts; the largest must be abandoned I fear but you will be going home and may perhaps, those of you who are less able, take it in turn to ride and walk. The carts shall be made to look more like the carts of costers in a city; and you my friends shall don the phrygian hats that the wives and sweethearts of all the English League have sewn for you; and some will too wear distinctive city garb; and you shall remember as you approach the picket to sing _Ça ira_ and the _Carmagnol_; for the part you play is townsfolk come to milk the cows and tend the crops and it is all strange and amusing to you. Monsieur le Duc tells me, Paul Lefevre the smith is a good actor and has played Saint Joseph five years running."

"And it should have been me, the carpenter!" declared the carpenter.

"Why if you too are a good actor you shall work with Paul and make this scheme work!" declared Percy.

"He be too fond of putting in his own lines" said the smith.

"Well so long as he does not improvise too much that then is an advantage" said Percy. "We shall try to join you; you need not hurry. But I cannot guarantee that we shall get back in time."

"What about Monsieur?" asked the smith.

"Monsieur, Madame and le petit Monsieur must go to England where they cannot bring danger on you" said Percy "And where they may know that you will then be safe; as you will know they will be safe. Do not worry about them. Your only task is to act like town folk convinced they will have a good time in the country, over confident that you will be able to do all that is necessary. None will watch you I wager so you will not have to act unhandy! Paul, can you do that?"

The smith considered.

"Yes Monsieur, I can do that; and Gerard here will back me up" he said "For do we not make a good pair when we play Caiaphas and Herod?"

"And if it were not so serious a subject they would render it a farce!" said one ancient worthy in a cracked and wheezing voice.

"Why elements of farce whilst recalling that your skins are also a serious subject would suit very well" said Percy. "LISTEN! Pregnant wives of volunteers from the city are one thing; but the infirm must, for the last part of the journey either appear able bodied or be hidden at the bottom of carts under clothing; which will make it seem that you carry more goods which is to the good but will be uncomfortable, hot and tedious. Stay quiescent for your lives' sakes and those of your family. Now let us get you tricked out in a little town bronze; and you may be on your way. The ass I fear must find his own way home; but I have no doubt he will manage that" he added, muttering in English "For an ass is less of an ass than many an human."

oOoOo

Froggie had departed from the rest of the band to seek a barn wherein the Duc de Belletréflière might lie snug with his sister and nephew; and too to procure food for them to keep them for several days, for though the travellers had packed travelling rations, one could not be quite sure how long it would be before the League members joined them.

Froggie led them to the barn he had found – and discovered that the farmer and his wife cared more for a store of gold than for politics – and bade them lay snug.

"We shall be with you within the week; if seven days go by and we do not come, don the clothes we have prepared that I have brought here and travel to the coast just north of Bayeux; a little village called Arromanches. There is an inn there called the Chez Georges; the innkeeper will find you a room and then you will be collected to take ship."

"But monsieur! If we take ship what if you are behind us?" asked the Duc.

"Then the ship will return on prearranged nights until we are collected or given up as lost" said Froggie, "I pray you do not cavil; all being well we shall be with you to travel. If not, then we shall doubtless find our own ways to the place. We are quite seasoned at this and not in the least bit discommoded by any minor cataclysm. Indeed sometimes it might prove better sport when all does not go to plan."

"_Eh bien_ you English and the sport! The _attitude sportif_ I do not understand!"

Froggie laughed.

"Well I have only yet met one of your countrymen who does understand it and he's part of the League."

The Duc stared.

"I had wondered….. can it be truly the Vicomte Chauvelin who plays the part of the officer? But he is a traitor to his class, a tiger of violence, dedicated to the revolution!"

"Oh I don't say that Armand isn't a republican because he is" said Froggie "But then, so's m'sister; she's a bluestocking too. Reads LATIN if you can believe it with every evidence of enjoyment; fond of her anyway" he added hastily "And Armand too; good sort. Done well by the League."

The Duc was staring in a mix of outrage and dawning wonderment.

"So all these years….." he said.

"My lips are sealed old man" said Froggie.

It DID make life more comfortable for his brother in law if these voluble French types thought he had been the League's man on the inside and did not try to force quarrels on him.

oOoOo

Froggie returned to the rest just as the French soldiers were beginning to groan. He lay on the ground and began to groan artistically himself. Sir Percy looking haggard – wig powder on the face created a remarkable pallor – ministered to Armand, equally pale, who bent over the chapeau bras that Percy had been wearing in which Peter had concocted an extraordinary liquid, consisting of chopped carrots in mud and stale beer that smelled suitably stale and alcoholic to pass as vomit.

The sight and smell of it that the corporal got as he half roused caused him to lose the contents of his own stomach; and Percy emptied it discreetly in a ditch. The nauseating concatenation had done its job in convincing the soldiery that their newer colleagues had been unconscious as had they themselves been.

"Citizen Captain!" croaked the corporal "Where are the villagers?"

"It is insupportable!" cried Armand with a totally Gallic wave of the arms "They have been spirited away like wraiths while we slept; parbleu! It must be the Scarlet Pimpernel who has arranged this; arranged that I should notice an odd arrangement of the shelves in the wine cellar and so investigate; oh they are cunning these English that they know how to make a clever man fall into a trick because it is not made too easy! The ci-devant Duc set it up; did you not see the pigeons that there always were? He has communicated with the Scarlet Pimpernel by carrier pigeon to avoid the picket! The peasant boy who was permitted to escape must have carried a pigeon with him! I see it all now!"

"Pardi but they are devils to think of such things!" gasped the corporal "And you citizen a clever man to work it out; a shame you did not do so BEFORE the villagers were rescued!" he added with no little spite.

Armand let his shoulders fall.

"Alas!" he said "How easy it is to be wise after the event! But all is not lost; you shall take your men to Orleans whence you came and report all that has happened; and I shall return to Citizen Barras under whose personal orders I am come and between us we shall be in time to see that they cannot reach the coast for the semaphore will outwit them; three hundred people travelling must excite the interest of anyone. Haste man; you to the west and I to the north; commandeer horses wherever you may!"

"We go!" cried the Corporal trying to spring to his feet and managing a single stagger before he fell over again.

Kindly and copious draughts of water from Percy's flask soon had the six soldiers feeling more able to cope; during which time Armand wrote a report for them and signed it in so atrocious a hand that it might have been written by almost anyone; which was indeed the idea. And with the staggering and still bemused soldiers on their way to Orleans, the League members turned back to catch up with the villagers, largely because Percy did not trust them to bluff without a bit of guidance.

"I am glad I guessed it right that we should seem to be as duped as they" said Armand to Percy "And the beauty is that they cannot disprove that I was sent by Barras – who if questioned on orders he gave would tell anyone to go to hell – and so far as anyone knows the Scarlet Pimpernel has taken three hundred villagers and the Duc and his kin all at once and wafted them by some unholy means out of the country."

"Of such are legends born" laughed Percy. "And to have that sort of reputation DOES help to strike terror and superstitious awe into the hearts of those we find ourselves pitted against."

"I have had the feeling myself at times" said Armand dryly. "You are a showman, Percy; you should conduct Astley's Amphitheatre."

"Well I DID learn a few acrobatic tricks from them in my time" admitted Percy "But alas, my weight was against me learning the high wire; shame that.

"It's why Peter's been teaching herself" said Armand "In case you need a street crossed – or a show put on to distract the eye."

"Egad!" said Percy "No end to the girl's resourcefulness; how is she doing?"

Armand gave a grim smile.

"Better for having an end in view I fancy than just doing it for fun" he said. "But still no higher than four feet off the ground – for MY peace of mind!"

"The thought occurs of travelling acrobats" murmured Percy.

"If it becomes necessary" said Armand.

"Oh yes; absolutely" said Percy, then grinned. "Famous sport though, wot?"

"Percy you are incorrigible" laughed Armand "And I believe I must be too; for I confess that I am enjoying myself mightily. Are those our rabble ahead?"

"Indeed they are" said Percy.

oOoOo

With the escort of the citizen captain, who was known to the pickets, and a ready story that the escort from Orleans had been more than happy to hand over the escort of their charges, the supposed sans culottes were readily ushered within the picket line and told to get on with the evening milking.

"Eh bien, do you not go with them citizen captain?" asked the Lieutenant.

"Not I!" said Armand "I'm glad to see the back of this place, to tell the truth; and I have an unpleasant duty in Paris, though I readily put it off to see that this rabble got here safely. It will not go well on my record" he mopped his brow with a kerchief "And I fear I may end up banished to some miserable country region forever. Do not, whatever you do, try to get into the hidden wine cellar at the chateau; the wine there is drugged…. Parbleu! We all slept and then awoke with such sickness to the stomach…. Which still I feel at the thought of what Citizen Barras will say….."

"Are you telling me, citizen Captain, that you LOST the peasants?" demanded the lieutenant.

"LOST! No, they were spirited away by the very devil; I can only suppose that carrier pigeons were used" Armand spread the story again. "Who can out-think this Englishman? If one had not swept away such superstition one might believe he truly HAD sold his soul to the devil! I sent half my men to report at Orleans….."

"You had better be on your way, Citizen; for bad news spreads in a worse way if delivered secondhand by others" said the Lieutenant.

"You are right citizen; sound advice" said Armand, dabbing at his mouth with the kerchief as though to hold back the ghastly outpouring of a man sick to the stomach. "I shall bid you adieu; I dare say that you will have your own congé soon enough since the birds have apparently flown. Hélas! But at least that illegitimate Chauvelin is no longer there to sneer at others who fail where he could not himself find success!"

"Yes; I have heard of him" said the Lieutenant "I am glad I never crossed his path; they say he was as nasty as they make them!"

"He was far worse, I assure you!" said Armand.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

It was a shock to the de Belletréflières to awaken to find that the English party had joined them quietly during the night and were sleeping in the hay with them; especially for Madame Marie-Louise who awoke to see the golden head of Peter on her side of the bales of hay the Duc had used as a partition. She gave a little cry.

Peter awoke, yawned, stretched and smiled at her.

"We came in quietly so as not to disturb you" she said "Do not be alarmed!"

"I – but monsieur! My brother arranged the bales for modesty! Why then do YOU sleep here?" demanded Marie-Louise in outrage.

"Why because there is not the privacy to sleep with my husband of course" said Peter. "Shall we take the opportunity while our menfolk slumber on blissfully in the arms of Morpheus to take a wash? I for one feel very much in need of it after our exertions yesterday and there is a pleasant pool arising from a spring not far away and out of sight of any labourers for being in a secluded little valley."

"You are a WOMAN?" demanded Marie-Louise.

"Lud, didn't Felicien tell you?" said Peter "I dare say it slipped his mind in the excitement. I'm Petronilla by rights but everyone calls me Peter; it shouts better. Armand is my husband; Froggie is my brother. Come! And while we are at it we may as well spoil our looks once we are clean with the walnut juice we have brought to turn us into gypsies and don the disguises we have."

"And then ma mie we men will do likewise while you ladies prepare breakfast" called Armand. "How can we remain peacefully in the arms of Morpheus if you ladies will chatter as though you are at a state banquet?"

"Men are so ill tempered in the morning!" laughed Peter.

oOoOo

Marie-Louise looked doubtfully at the walnut juice that Peter was liberally smearing onto her own naked and clean body; Peter had enjoyed the dip in the cold spring and ad scrubbed vigorously at herself with – for want of anything better – her phrygian cap. Marie-Louise had been more cautious and had washed herself a portion at a time sat on the edge of the pool in her shift, giving little horrified looks at Peter disporting naked.

"You English….. are you always so immodest? And so HARDY?" she asked.

"What's immodest? We are both women" said Peter "It is not like bathing at the seaside where one must keep under water at all times because men are bathing in the same vicinity and the lewd ones gather on the cliff tops with bring-em-nears. And where many wear shifts too for modesty. Not that I bothered last time I was at the seaside but as I was only eleven or twelve it scarcely signifies. As for hardy….. well perhaps it is an English characteristic. Here, do you want a hand applying the walnut juice? You will have to take your shift off or it too will be stained; and that will give the game away."

"You – you mean to cover your whole body?" Marie-Louise was shocked.

"We have a saying from our navy" said Peter "A shame to spoil the ship for a ha'pporth of tar; meaning that without enough tar, the ship is not caulked well enough and may not be watertight. For our stories to be watertight we need to know that if we slip and fall and our skirts ride up there is no line to show where the brown skin stops; or if some lewd fellow rips our bodice to fondle us as may happen with some of the rougher types we may encounter, that then all the skin they admire is the same uniform brown; even if they merely peer, the whole must be brown should the bodice slip. It's a place men WILL notice. If we have to roll our sleeves up in the presence of others they must be brown all the way up. So yes; the brown dye will go on all over. It's safer. You will do my back; and I will do yours and we shall check each other for gaps."

"But walnut – it does not readily wash out!" said Marie-Louise.

"Quite; and so cannot be scrubbed off to reveal an imposture" said Peter. "It will take us two weeks to reach the coast on foot; and travelling without raising suspicions; and in that time it will have substantially worn off. It will certainly have done so by the time we reach England. Those of us with blonde hair have a harder time of it; for the dye that has been procured will have to grow out, a tedious long business. Percy and Froggie plan to dye theirs dark and then shave their heads and claim it was for a wager; or wear wigs for a while in England. I will use the same walnut juice to go a darker colour and rely on being a didekoi, a half bred gypsy; you shall be my maman, taken by some blonde fellow. Make up your own mind whether it was a willing union or rape; you will best tell the story, if you have to, if you are happy with it in your own mind. I will too wear a shawl over my head at all times as gypsies usually do; and there may not even be any questions to answer. The secret is not to volunteer information; nobody does that!"

There was a shout

"Holá, you women; are you all right?" from Sir Percy.

"But yes; we are merely a little slow!" Peter called back "We are dealing with this horrid-feeling dye; and then we must let it dry before we dress."

"Understood!" called Percy.

It may be said that he muttered to Armand and Froggie that he suspected that Peter had been having some trouble with the Lady Marie-Louise.

oOoOo

After two gypsy women had emerged from the valley, the men set off, and Peter grinned to hear Sir Percy shouting.

"Egad! Last one in is a lolpoop gadzooks!"

Armand's pained question,

"What, Percy, is a lolpoop?" made the Duc and Felicien add their murmurs of approbation to the query.

"A very lazy drone of a fellow!" laughed Percy.

The ladies heard cries and laughter as the men discovered how cold the spring was and made it known with less inhibition than a lady might do; sounds of splashing, yelps of outrage and much hilarity were proof that they were – at least the two Englishmen – enjoying themselves.

Presently five gypsies emerged from the pool; Percy led by Armand with a rope about his waist playing the part of an idiot, Armand, his hair whitened with powder and dressed as an old crone, several teeth blackened; and the others as three disreputable looking men who would doubtless make the honest women of any town clutch their purses tighter to themselves, and in the case of Froggie at least, who managed a devil-may-care look, half hoping that they might be robbed and the searches be extensive.

"Lud Froggie, we'll have half the citizenesses in France wanting to go with your Black Jack Davy-O" said Peter.

Froggie grinned.

"Don't tell Cecily, will you?" he said.

"I won't tell her if any try to offer themselves but you never know; she might find the idea of you dressed up as a raggle-taggle gypsy quite romantic" said Peter. "HOW did you get your hair so dark?"

"Lunar caustic" said Percy.

"Otherwise know as nitric acid silver or nitrate of silver" said Armand. "I preferred to go grey as an old woman; I think it unlikely that I could get away with claiming a wager to shave my head; and I fancied you might have a thing or two to say if I resorted to a wig, ma mie."

Peter grinned.

"It's very effective" she said. "And the society of London will readily believe any mad wager of Percy and Froggie. A drunken game of turn the trencher with Andrew and Tony resulting in a forfeit perhaps…"

"By Jove, Percy, that's a thought!" said Froggie "Actually I've been worrying about what a wager might be over; you have to admit, m'sister's demmed sharp!"

"THAT" said Percy "Is the main reason I permit her to be a full member of the league. Demme, Peter if I don't like that explanation better than a mysterious wager… if Tony and Andrew will go along with that and Tony paints his nails and Andrew has an ear pierced we shall have a few days' laughter at our expense and no more thought of it."

"And just as well their respective wives love you and the league as well as they do" said Peter severely. "Pierced ears? I thought that went out with the _ancien regime_?"

"Well if it were high fashion, it would not be a forfeit would it?" said Froggie "Don't worry; the hole will heal quickly enough. Sailors reckon having pierced ears gives them better eyesight."

"Sailors" said Peter severely "Believe a lot of old gammon; like whistling on board causes a storm. Or having women on board is unlucky. Or that sailing on a Friday causes disaster. You cannot place any reliance on the superstitions of sailors you know!"

"Never said I did; just mentioned what I had heard" said Froggie.

"You Holtes!" laughed Armand "MUST you find some odd subject to quarrel about?"

"I think, _mon coeur_ they find us" said Peter cheerfully "Froggie and I have been bickering since I could talk."

"That's true enough" said Froggie "Born argumentative she was."

Armand raised his eyes heavenwards and sighed theatrically; and the little party moved off.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

The sound of thundering hooves made the party of supposed gypsies get readily off the road; the cavalcade was approaching from the direction in which they were travelling. It appeared to be a dozen soldiers under some leader and the gypsies made clumsy salutes.

The leader shouted,

"_Halte-la!"_ to his men and pulled up his horse. Peter swallowed a gasp; it was Desgas. He spoke roughly. "You gypsies, have you seen a great cavalcade of travellers?"

"But yes, citizen!" the Duc was the spokesman "A party of city folk, bound in the same direction as you go; it was yesterday."

"In the SAME direction? Think carefully!" said Desgas.

"Indeed yes: they were singing and happy; I understood them to be travelling to learn to farm land somewhere. It seemed a little odd but who can say? To prefer the country air to the city, that I can understand."

Desgas was staring at Percy who drooled.

"That man there!" snapped the policeman "Bring him over here!"

"My brother is an idiot, citizen; and dumb withal. He cannot answer questions, even if he understood them" said the Duc humbly.

Percy, apparently perceiving himself looked at, went into a burst of insane cracked laughter and turned his back to lower his breeches.

"The boy has a basic sense of humour, citizen" Armand whined "I beg you will excuse him" and he whacked Percy on the buttocks with the stick he carried as though for infirmity. "Boy, get your breeches up and face the man!"

Percy straightened sullenly.

"Dumb, you say? He yelped well enough" said Desgas.

"It is all he can do, make noises; boy, show the man your tongue!" said Armand.

Percy shambled forward and opened his mouth obediently. Desgas recoiled.

"Even the Scarlet Pimpernel would not go to the length of having his tongue cut out!" he cried "Was it done as a punishment?"

"Nay, citizen" wheezed Armand "He was born like it, and his poor mother dead of birthing the creature. He is a hardship but he is still my grandson. He is very strong. He can lift you on the horse if you wish it, and will cross his palm with silver" he added.

"I do not wish it!" said Desgas in lively horror. His men stifled grins; they knew they would pay if he thought for one moment that they laughed at him!

"Going to be farmers" he said "This I have heard of; no great band heading West?"

The Duc considered.

"I have not SEEN anything you understand" he said.

"What?" demanded Desgas half hysterical "Tell me what you know, what you suspect!"

The Duc managed to look shifty.

"You will not laugh at me?" he said. "My brother-in-law there says I am run as insane as poor Paul."

"Just TELL me!" Desgas almost screeched.

"Well, I was out late at night; the call of nature you understand" said the Duc "And I thought I heard voices."

"Yes, where?" demanded Desgas.

"He was dreaming, Citizen!" said Froggie hastily "I beg you, do not believe it was anything; pardi! Whoever heard of hearing voices in the SKY? And with breaths of flame? There are no such things as dragons!"

"It was not dragons!" declared the Duc "It was…. I do not know WHAT it might be! I saw flames and they lit up monstrous whales in the sky! And I heard the voices, I was not dreaming!"

"Balloons? Could it be balloons, the hot flame lighting up a silken bag?" cried Desgas.

The Duc goggled at him marvelling.

"Well I wouldn't say it might not be" he said cautiously "It weren't dragons; stand to reason. There be no dragons in this day and age."

"And never was if you ask me" said Froggie. "BALLOONS! Your worship, I mean citizen, depend upon it you have hit upon it!"

"But I never SEEN how many people there was" said the Duc stubbornly "Reckon there was a dozen or more whales – or balloons – though. I didn't stop and count; Henri, I said to myself, Henri, when people are talking in the sky and floating with flames there's something afoot that you don't want to know about, so I hid myself in the barn and put my head inside my coat, and then when I tell Jacques here what I have seen all he does is laugh at me."

"Yes, very well!" said Desgas. "Balloons! Turn about men, we must get to a semaphore station as soon as possible!"

oOoOo

"That fellow is ubiquitous!" said Armand.

"Funny, I used to think the same of you" said Percy. "Though I must say when I came upon you I knew I had to exercise all my skill and wit!"

"Desgas has some shrewdness" said Armand "But he is essentially straightforward and easily led."

"Percy your TONGUE!" cried Peter "How did you do it?"

"La, m'dear, 'tis a trick I learned off a beggar; to roll the tongue back in a certain way to seem dumb" he said. "One holds the tip in the throat; some beggars apparently score the underside of the tongue to make it bleed but I saw no necessity at that; it's deucedly hard not to gag. T'was why I had to show that fellow the full moon – as well as to give him more cause to think me simple – that he not see the faces I pulled when I got my tongue in place. We discussed such a tactic when we were donning our disguise" he added.

"I like the idea of the partial truth concerning balloons" said Peter "That they were used to get people OUT not IN. The number of balloons would be prodigious; an impossible task! And moreover against the prevailing winds!"

"Which my OLD adversary would have thought of in a trice" said Percy. "But it was well done Alois; the reluctance was just the right touch, and Froggie it was beautifully sceptical, just the right mixture! I am glad now that I did turn the task to you, Alois; too much speech might have reminded our friend Desgas that he has seen Armand as an old crone before."

"It crossed my mind also" said Armand. "Though I wager he still does not know if the old crone was one of the League, or indeed an old crone paid to put him on the wrong scent. But every little clue, every familiarity may excite recognition!"

"True indeed" said Percy.

oOoOo

The troupe of gypsies were planning to go south of Orleans via Blois before turning north; to avoid any traffic between Orleans and Paris. It was going to be a gruelling and arduous trek; and Percy was glad that Marie-Louise seemed quite at home in sabots that would make walking far more comfortable than the kind of shoes to which she had been accustomed in the days before her world was turned upside-down. Froggie and Peter might at some point scout for carts to purchase if Marie-Louise seemed unable to cope; but on foot they would be less conspicuous. The 'Daydream' would not look for them for two weeks at least after their departure; slow but secure was to be the watchword. Duc Alois and his family had shown that they could play a waiting game concealed in obviousness in the village; Percy had no fears that impatience would cause them to strike a false note once they understood what the strategy was to be. Froggie had long been a loyal and obedient member of the league; and Chauvelin and Peter had proven their ability to wait without complaint and without a loss of vigilance. Percy was content; or as content as he might be when missing Marguerite.

He sighed softly.

"Percy? Marguerite is waiting for you" said Peter quietly. "She would have come, you know."

"Yes; but I am not sure that Armand copes as well without you as I do without the little woman" said Percy. "He – as you know – has had precious little in his life that was good until he met you; you are his talisman. And I should have left the two of you together for longer had not you had the idea of ballooning and had not Armand been the only man I know – and trust – who has knowledge of the same. And we could not take everyone" he smiled ruefully.

"No indeed; Armand would have torn his hair out over the calculations of the lift had you tried" said Peter. "He would cope without me along I think; but he copes better with me. And as a gypsy wench I too may do some tricks on a rope some of you hold taut; and who would suspect THAT of any aristo? Yes; I was the obvious choice. But Marguerite should go on some missions if I may be so bold as to recommend to you chief; and I will tell you why."

"And coming from another woman – even one who is half boy, I swear – I suspect you may divine even more of such reasons than may I" said Percy "Though I fancy I understand women better than most."

"You do chief" said Peter "And this regards something that Marguerite would die before she herself revealed it because it is one of those little and illogical things we women may be prone to and are ashamed of. And it is jealousy. No, not of Marie-Louise nor of any woman" she added as Percy looked faintly puzzled, glancing at Marie-Louise "It is jealousy of your time. If you permit her a part of your time AS A LEAGUE MEMBER not merely as your WIFE you will give to her a part of your other life; I wager she has never been so happy as the odd times, exhausted, cold, suffering you have spent time together on the run in France. If you do not take her on missions she will come to resent the League, and the Scarlet Pimpernel who takes her husband away. And she will know this to be unreasonable and will try to conceal it, and will resent that she has to conceal it. She was so happy that the Terror ended with the fall of Robespierre; permitting herself to get pregnant was a celebration that her child would have his father at home. That has proved not to be the case; and she resents for your son as well as for herself. She was delighted to be involved in rescuing Leonie and the others; despite the horrors we witnessed, I could see how contented she was. Permit her to be more active, Percy; it may save an estrangement, especially if she ever finds out you constrained St Just to leave the country."

He pulled a grimace.

"That I believe she suspects; as indeed I believe she suspects more of his treachery than I would have told her regarding the time he betrayed me to YOUR Armand; she cleaves to me not to him for she saw him go without much demur; only asked me if it were necessary. But you are right; she has lost much to the league; the trust in her brother, much of my time. It's a demmed cheek of course on your part; but one I willingly forgive as it comes from your love and friendship for Marguerite. Thank you for being plain about it."

"I don't do roundaboutation" said Peter.

"No; and I'm deucedly glad you don't" said Percy.


	17. Chapter 17

**PART II**

**Chapter 17**

Back in England life went on as normal.

"Ah Lady Blakeney, Sir Percy out of town is he?" Lord Kulmstead asked suavely as he saluted Marguerite's hand at Almack's.

"La! He's somewhere about to be sure" said Marguerite airily "I believe he drove out of town to see about some poor fellow selling off his wine cellar; a shame for the one that is losing his cellar, but where else can one get a good French vintage these days?"

"Indeed?" said Kulmstead "I fear he might find when he tries to enter the er poor fellow's wine cellar he will find himself balked; he might even find himself shut into it. Miserable sort of thing to happen to anyone I should think."

"Oh somehow I think that as inane as my husband can be he's not so foolish as to get shut in anyone's wine cellar" said Marguerite. "Sometimes it helps to know more ways in or out of a place than by the obvious door you know; it's those who don't understand the consequences and implications of all that they do who somehow fall by the wayside."

"Ah? Then I am sure that you hope that Sir Percy knows all the implications of what he is doing."

"Oh certainly; Percy is quite shrewd enough, thank you" said Marguerite.

"I don't see the Chauvelins either" persisted Kulmstead. "An odd choice for Froggie Holte to make to bestow his sister on a staunch republican. I wonder what can have induced him to do such a thing?"

Marguerite laughed.

"Oh that's no secret; he was only too delighted to find someone who did not mind that Petronilla is a blue stocking with republican leanings herself. You must know that Froggie quite despaired of finding a husband for her who would not be frightened off by her erudition."

"I wonder if that can be it" murmured Kulmstead "Or if it merely seemed a fortuitous additional reason to Froggie? Such an obedient dog – frog I mean – to leap to command. Where is he, by the way?"

Marguerite smiled.

"Why doubtless he is busy leaping to some task or other; I may be friendly with little Petronilla but I am not the keeper of either of the Holtes you know. Though as to Petronilla and her husband, they are still really in the honeymoon period; one can scarcely expect them to attend many social functions yet!"

"Ah doubtless… M. Chauvelin must wish that he might take his bride on a honeymoon trip to somewhere like the Loire Valley" Kulmstead persisted.

Marguerite laughed again.

"Oh they are more likely to find the workings of some mill in Sheffield or some such place more interesting than the dubious pleasures of sightseeing" she said. "Though where they may go is scarcely my business; and I believe none whatsoever of yours."

He frowned.

"Oh I am just concerned about Sir Percy" he said "I heard he had one Doctor Pradel out to call; and I hoped it might be nothing serious."

"Indeed? it was not a professional call" said Marguerite "One might number doctors amongst one's personal acquaintances after all; your concerns are all quite spurious. It was feared that there might be a disease in London but as it happens it has been rendered quite harmless."

"Do you think so?" Kulmstead was looking uncertain.

"Oh indeed; contagion is only dangerous if one is not prepared to take such innovative measures as Edward Jenner's new discovery of vaccination seems to suggest are possible; though perhaps that piece of information has not come your way. It is one of the advantages of having a friend like Simon Pradel; that he keeps abreast of the newest experiments. But preventative measures, shall we say are better than cure since I appear to have confused you; and in such a way my husband is entirely unlikely to encounter any disease."

Marguerite spoke perhaps more blithely than she felt; Peter's idea was magnificent – if it worked – and gave Percy and the others every chance of effecting a quiet and undetected entry. Getting out was always the hard part; and Marguerite suffered agonies of worry this time no less than any other time when her husband was from her side; with no way to let her know if he was safe or not. She could only place her trust in the plan, and in Chauvelin's ability to carry it out; something that would have been unthinkable not so long ago!

And yet she did trust him; that nervous, intelligent visage of his was no longer dead of emotion save sometimes that of savage exultation; it was alive and his eyes glowed nowadays with enthusiasm and idealism, not cold fanatic hatred. And he understood engineering and science; and that would keep her husband safe. The knowledge that Percy had with him the two people of the League who were as clever as he, and too the loyal Froggie, meant that there was less to worry about than at some other times.

Times when her brother Armand had been involved, Marguerite admitted to herself; for equal as Percy might be to a common traitor like Kulmstead, or an idiot in love like Devinne he had the urge to protect her brother for her that had risked him unnecessarily.

However, even if her worries, however groundless, disturbed her inner thoughts, she smiled gaily and answered merrily and Kulmstead had little option but to withdraw gnawing on one fingernail in frustration and impatience over HIS uncertainties.

oOoOo

"What are you doing Johnnie?"

St John Devinne jumped.

"I er… this appears to have fallen out of the rack sir" he said to his colonel.

"Are you trying to take it Johnnie?" asked the colonel.

Johnnie went red.

"As a matter of fact I was putting it back" he went even redder "I….. I took it for the Scarlet Pimpernel sir; to effect a rescue. He needed it…"

The Colonel held up his hand.

"I don't believe I need to know any details, Johnnie" he said "But next time, ask, won't you? There's not a gentleman in the land with honour who would not do his utmost to aid the Scarlet Pimpernel; and you're privileged to have the opportunity to do so. But if I am caught taking maps I have a better reason than a junior captain. Besides" he grinned "Then I get to feel that I too have a part of it!"

"Thanks sir; you're a sportsman" said Johnnie.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Blois was an old city, dominated totally by its huge and impressive chateau. The city was built on two hills being, said Peter, the Palatine and the Aventine, with the populace of the Aventine running the Palatine. This classical allusion earned her a poke from Froggie and a chuckle from Armand. Many of the tall houses were very fine; but the meaner streets between high buildings were very warrens of despair as in Paris, places the sun never shone.

Gypsies would be ready to perform to gain as much money as they might; so the band were not about to deviate from normal behaviour. With a drum roll from Felicien, and two saw trestles borrowed from workmen, Percy and Froggie held a rope taut, aided by several turns about each trestle, for Peter to walk along and perform graceful balances. She was not so skilled as the acrobats of the Astley's Amphitheatre of course; but to most that the feat might be performed at all was worthy of applause and the collection of a few centimes on Felicien's drum head. Percy tumbled acrobatically for a few more centimes; and then there was a cry that the police were coming to break up a crowd and the gypsies ran on their way, laughing at the police.

"Why would they break up a crowd watching a spectacle?" asked Armand sharply.

"A good question _mon vieux_" said Percy. "Peter, take this money and buy bread and sausage; you and Armand both and see what you may find out."

oOoOo

The baker's wife was a jolly enough woman, wary of gypsies but yet ready enough to have her palm read; and Armand, who had spotted a younger version of the woman dallying with a young man spoke of a wedding in the family to come and good fortune.

"Ah yes we have been blessed with nothing but good fortune" said the woman sighing contentedly "How glad I was that my husband would not in any wise help his fool cousin and his family!"

"Ah?" said Armand encouragingly. Once she was in the habit of being confiding asking more pertinent questions would be easier.

"Yes indeed; he is a wine merchant is Didier Perrault; and he and his wife and all their children are to be guillotined tomorrow; for aiding those accursed aristos who are invading La Bretagne! It is that he was once a butler to such aristos, and his wife a chambermaid; but we had thought he had forgotten such servility and settled down as his own man with a little shop. Alas! And my husband told him that it was useless, but useless, and besides a treachery to France; but he would not listen! Oh it is poor Claudette I am sorry for and those five poor younglings, and Beatrice – she is the oldest girl she is fifteen – herself had been about to be married; and to find that it was her own fiancé who betrayed the family! For my husband could not betray his own flesh and blood now, could he?"

Armand did not trouble to point out that such had been often done during the Terror; and after murmuring a sufficiency of platitudes they moved on.

"Percy's luck is prodigious" said Armand "And affects us all that we should choose that shop of all shops in which to purchase bread."

"We must find out if they are the only ones" said Peter. "We can scarcely leave them; I am sure Percy will agree. But it is short notice."

"Yes; and for carrying out the mission he set out to do I fear he may refuse" said Armand "At which mayhap he will grant you and me leave to work alone."

"We shall have to see" said Peter "Let me find out more first."

She quickly ingratiated herself with a woman on a market stall selling peaches by buying three and juggling with them, which drew something of a crowd and, as Peter had guessed, sales increased. It did not take long to ascertain that there was only to be the one family of audacious traitors to guillotine whose demise, said the supposed gypsy girl cheerfully, would draw a crowd and be good for business.

oOoOo

"Blois has a bloody history for dissenters" said Duc Alois "It was here that the Jews of the city were accused, in the twelfth century, of crucifying a Christian child to celebrate Passover and one of their leaders was 'swum' after the fashion of witches to judge their guilt or innocence. I should have thought that a lack of a missing child would have been a bit more conclusive but then I am a man of the age of reason. They were all burned, men women and children. Joan of Arc made it her headquarters; a brighter spot in its history, but the Calvinists of the sixteenth century also faired badly."

"Why on earth should Jews be accused of crucifying a Christian child?" demanded Peter. "It sounds rather a bizarre accusation to me."

"It is to do with the concept that the Jews tend to keep themselves separate" said Armand "And consequently are often accused of using blood sacrifice, quite without foundation. Probably that was what was being hinted at in Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice' when Shylock demands his pound of flesh; and Portia as you recall grants that he must have his flesh, but he might not take any blood with it. The audience of the time, being more used to the traditional accusations levelled, would have been more appreciative of the comment of not permitting the Jews any blood. If you ask me there probably was a missing child, one who was prominent enough that it would be investigated, and doubtless murdered with unsavoury motives by someone else; more than likely, from what I have seen, a close relative or someone close to the family. By accusing the unfortunate Jewish community the perpetrator of such an unnatural act was able to shift the blame elsewhere. Every age has its scapegoats; and scapegoats are used to help the truly guilty survive their own acts."

"And the law of the suspect has been used similarly" said Percy.

"It has; and I hold up my hands to say 'mea culpa' at the folly of it" said Armand. "Though generally that law was used more to get rid of someone who might be about to accuse of a crime the one who laid information. Many aristocrats WERE guilty enough of sufficient abominable crimes that it was easy to tar the rest with the same brush. But as the conditions for the average sans-culotte did not improve, rather than seek a reason for their misery, which was in any case too complex for their ill-educated thoughts to comprehend, the methodology was instead to extend the number of people who might be blamed, extend the extent of the aristos. I am beginning to wonder whether one reason for the collapse of the Terror, the reason people were ready to condemn Robespierre, was because they had essentially run out of aristos; and he was the next thing to an aristo and had not brought answers. Which being so, the next group of scapegoats promptly became the Jacobins. Who next? Who knows. I fancy it may be interminable until all of France lies in ruins smoking from the uncontrolled and unfocussed hatred of the mob turning to making scapegoats of any from a few streets away because they are not their immediate neighbours."

"I cannot think that you need be quite so pessimistic, old man" said Percy. "Egad, that would be a pretty pass to come to! And such pessimistic views will not help us to remain positive in this rescue; put them behind you for now, Armand; though I dare say you are correct enough in your surmises concerning scapegoats, we must think of the present, and neither the past not some unspecified future!"

"You are correct, Percy; my apologies" said Armand.

"Oh we need a pessimist, or realist, to keep our feet on the ground" said Percy gaily "Though that's not perhaps a good figure of speech considering your excellent skills with a balloon! Who has anything to tell us about the prisoners?"

"They are in the Chateau, unsurprisingly" said Froggie "Guarded closely in case of popular rescue; or indeed popular assassination of them to cheat Madame Guillotine. Feelings seem very split here; there seems to be a small degree of underground support for the Perrault family who were popular; though the majority vilify them."

"Ah; then I have the beginnings of an idea" said Percy.

"Which we are not in the least surprised about" said Peter "Your brain, chief, was built for having ideas. Armand and I are pretty good at improvising; but you are the chief for a reason. I wonder though if your thoughts tally with mine?"

"Quite possibly" said Percy. "Speak up Peter; we shall hear your plan and then if it tallies with mine, doubtless it will also have twists mine does not, as mine will have twists that yours does not."

Peter outlined her thoughts; and Percy laughed and laid out his own, very similar concept of how best to tackle the problem. And Peter extracted from her pocket certain papers she had brought with her; and waved them, astonishing Armand; and delighting Percy.

"Which will only buy us a short amount of time" he warned "Before such are proven to be spurious."


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

The slight, dapper, sable-clad figure of Citizen Chauvelin managed to fill the castle governor's office with menace despite his lack of inches. Powder over the walnut juice made him look unhealthy; a believable state for a desk-bound official from Paris.

"You have now seen my credentials and know that I am reinstated as head of the state police" he said quietly "And I trust that you will stop blustering and sit down and actually listen; if there is any connection between the excrescences on the side of your head and what you jestingly refer to as your brain within it."

Colonel Lefarge flushed.

"I assure you Citizen Chauvelin, I was merely taken aback" he said. "Ma foi! But if it is true as you say that the Mouron Rouge is abroad in France…"

"Our agent Citizeness Candeille in London reported that he left for his boat in good time to be in Blois as we speak" said Chauvelin "And here on purpose to rescue these damned traitors. Therefore Citizen Colonel we have the opportunity to entrap him; to cover you with glory and make sure that NO vestige of suspicion cover me at all in Paris."

"Yes; quite. What must I do?" demanded the Colonel who was ready to believe that a man like Chauvelin would enlist his services to make sure his own position was secure.

"If instead of the Perrault family in the cell the Scarlet Pimpernel were to attempt to remove instead a man, and the semblance of his wife and older children who are to be the youngest and bravest drummer boys, one dressed as a girl, and another older but slender man dressed as a woman, for in the dimness of the cell it will not show, why dummies on a pile of straw will do for the three youngest ones, for the soldiers might readily overpower the Scarlet Pimpernel when he enters the cell."

"You are very certain that he will get past the guard" said the Colonel somewhat angered.

"Disguise is the second nature of the Scarlet Pimpernel" said Chauvelin airily "He has taken many roles and excelled at all; why, had you not known me, and had I been more endowed with height, I would not put it past him to try to pretend to be me!"

"Tonnerre!" said Colonel Lefarge "Yes; it is fortunate, Citizen, that I do know you by sight and to speak to! Where would you have me place the traitors while this subterfuge goes on?"

"I wish to take them right away" said Armand "To Paris; where they can be guillotined in front of a mob that might NOT have the friendly elements in it that I spoke of. Knowing the Scarlet Pimpernel it may be that a rescue is to be effected at the last minute so have your men wear clothes that can be readily thrown off to reveal themselves so the crowd is in no doubt who they truly are; and then they may seize any would-be rescuers even if the rescue is not tonight. I should like to have the prisoners conveyed with all speed to a calèche and driven away under the escort I have provided to make sure that none know that they go; not trusting any local man not to mention the matter. And if we start immediately it is so commonplace a time of day none will look for any clandestine move. And to give me time to return to triumph over the Scarlet Pimpernel."

"And is there anything else you require citizen?" asked the Colonel with a touch of sarcasm.

"Indeed there is; my men and I have ridden from Paris in a hurry; our beasts are tired. We shall require replacements. Myself and a half dozen men" said Chauvelin; "Which is to say five horses; two of the men will drive the calèche."

"Naturally" said the Colonel "And that would be the escort you left at the guardroom?"

"Quite" said Chauvelin coldly. "Two will be sufficient to escort the prisoners to the calèche when it is prepared; the rest may oversee that and the saddling of the horses."

oOoOo

The Perraults were frightened but cowed into obedience when the soldiers and the darkly-clad official harried them through the corridors of the castle and out of a postern into a calèche. Peter and Froggie as the two most accomplished drivers were to take the box; Peter was already up there, Froggie and Percy having been the guards who had brought the prisoners. The theft of garments from the garrison laundry had not been particularly hard; nor plain black for Armand.

Armand felt equivocal about this rescue in some respects; for the Perraults were traitors to their country. And yet they were supremely loyal to their employers; and believed that they were acting for the overall good of their country. He sighed. Had it been just Perrault himself he might have told Percy that he could not lend himself to this regardless of Peter having thoughtfully brought the documents with which Citizeness Candeille had carried to bribe him. It was a bold bluff to actually use them and to use his real identity; but boldness so often carried the day for Percy it was foolish not to trust to it! After all, as Peter had pointed out, PARIS knew that he had rejected the offer; and Paris had probably informed such places as Calais and Brest to look out for the use of such papers in case he used them to enter the country. Spreading the story of going to a condemned traitor to the republic cap in hand with a bribe and papers was not however a story that the likes of Barras would willingly spread. And the tale had not reached Blois; but enough rumours had been rife that the Colonel had accepted the story with only the most tentative query about papers. Armand had permitted him a perfunctory glance then snatched them back to put away; as he might have done with a contumelious underling in the old days.

It was a master stroke of Percy's to suggest that there was no time like the present and to get in several hours hard driving in daylight would take them much further on than by a quieter method; and would, moreover, if the Colonel were looking for an attempt by partisan elements in the crowd assisted by the Scarlet Pimpernel, give them well over onto the morrow to be well away. They should reach Le Mans before the alarm was given; and instead of then turning east to Paris they would disappear back into the personalities of gypsies and travel with a slightly larger band after abandoning calèche and horse just outside Le Mans.

It really was very exhilarating.

And now he rode readily under Peter's tuition this part of the journey was in no wise as much of a trial as it must have otherwise been.

oOoOo

Inside the calèche, the Perraults were wondering what was happening. The soldiers who had harried them along and demanded that they get inside had seemed rough; but the big, evil-looking one who had lifted small Pierre up, kicking and trying to bite, had given such a merry wink and said softly,

"Fear not; you are with friends."

It was hard to credit; Didier Perrault did not recognise any of those soldiers he had seen; how could they be friends? And yet there was that in the quality of the voice – such a merry voice! – of that soldier that he DID trust; and told his family in a low voice to do so too.

The speed at which they were being thundered along the road seemed incredible; and Madame Claudette Perrault was quite white with fear. Henri, a year and a half younger than Beatrice, was gazing out of the window in awe and declared they must be going almost fifteen miles an hour.

"Where do you think they are taking us so fast? And why?" asked Madame Perrault, the agony of suspense over that question briefly overcoming the agony of terror at the breakneck speed.

"The soldier said to trust; and I trust" said Didier Perrault "His voice when he spoke to me so quietly was like the voice of Monsieur in the old times; not the rough soldier's voice he spoke with earlier. I think he is from Monsieur. Whether I am correct or not, however, we have little choice in the matter; and for the children we shall be acquiescent and well behaved. Henri! Beatrice! You will promise to behave, and you three little ones? No more kicking and biting, eh, Pierre?"

"They will hurt us papa!" cried the mite, barely breeched.

"I do not believe they will" said Perrault. "You must swear!"

"I will swear Papa" said Henri "And so will the others; but I will also swear to watch, and so will Beatrice, and if they seem to be about to harm us, we promise to care for the little ones."

"That is my good son; and Beatrice, if you will do this, my good daughter" said Perrault "For if such comes to pass, Maman and I will distract them so you can get the little ones away. But I do not believe that it will come to that. Beatrice, _ma minette,_ you must learn again to be yourself; you have been betrayed! But that means the _canard_ who has done this is not worthy of you."

"How can I do anything but grieve, papa, when it is I who have brought all this on the family?" said Beatrice "Oh! I thought that it would be quite all right to tell Guillaume; it never occurred to me that he might betray us all; I thought he loved me!"

"We – your mother and I – do not hold you in blame" said Perrault "If you cannot trust the one who is to be your spouse, who might you then trust? He proved false; but you are not in any wise false, _cherie!_"

Beatrice sobbed softly; her whole world had been destroyed. And for trusting too well and not wisely not merely her love had been torn asunder but her whole family had been betrayed and hurt; and might be going to die. Her mother put an arm around her; there was nothing else she could do, though there was plenty that she would like to do to the faithless Guillame!

oOoOo

Darkness had fallen before the terrible pace abated for more than a few minutes at a time to rest the horses: and the waxing moon was peering coyly over the horizon, a virgin goddess emerging shyly from her place of slumber clad in a whispy veil of cloud as revealing as the fine muslins of the new Directoire fashions that aped the classical draperies fair Diana wore in unyielding stone statues.

The cavalcade pulled off the main road and came to a halt.

The door of the calèche was opened and the merry voice that Perrault trusted spoke.

"Well Mesdames and Monsieurs we have reached the end of the drive; it's the old fashioned foot from hereon. The calèche that has brought us so far so fast will mark us from tomorrow; and I'd like to put as much distance between it and us as possible by the time it is being sought! Madame, Mademoiselle, would you perhaps assist in the preparing of a meal while Monsieur Perrault and Monsieur Henri assist us in dismantling the vehicle and losing it beneath the turbid waters of the quarry or pit so conveniently close to hand?"

"M'sieur; who ARE you?" stammered Perrault.

The merry laugh rang out.

"La, but the Scarlet Pimpernel and friends; at your service!" said Percy.

"Did – did Monsieur ask you to come?" asked Perrault.

"Egad, my friend, he has not had time to hear the news; I am certain one who inspires such loyalty would have done so however! It was fortunate that your plight came to our notice by other means" said Percy. It would not inspire them with much confidence to say 'sheer blind luck'. "So we were able to combine two missions in one! Now let is set to and have all in order ere the women are ready to feed us; I have no doubt that they will contrive."

"Monsieur we have no food to cook" said Madame Claudette.

"Don't worry Madame; Marie-Louise and I have already seen to that" said Peter. "Mademoiselle Beatrice, I fear that your sorrow is indeed mighty for there will never be the opportunity to return to Blois to kick that snivelling little rat of a ci-devant fiancé of yours in the cods but you may rest assured that your escape will not bring him happiness. Colonel Lefarge is going to be looking for a scapegoat and I fancy the false lover might prove to provide him with a ram in a thicket. I pray you, as you are inclined to be lachrymose already to deal with these onions whilst I get a fire going and Madame to chop the salt pork and we might have a fine stew."

By the time the calèche had been reduced to as small parts as was convenient and was immersed in the sullen green waters of the disused quarry, and the horses had been turned loose upon the road, the stew was smelling good; and an excellent meal was had by all.

There was a tumbledown shack that would do as a shelter and the bemused Perrault family might be told on the morrow that they were to become gypsies.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

A large and boisterous band of gypsies – the little ones did not need much encouraging to make a noise and run about as a means of expressing their gladness to be out of the noisome cell where they had lately been incarcerated – drew little attention. Felicien wished to do all in his power to emulate the wonderful Englishmen and condescended to make an ally of Henri; and Peter drew Beatrice to one side, taking the girl's arm. Beatrice had discovered by now that Peter was also a girl, and now attired as such too, and beyond a natural wariness did not draw back.

"Beatrice" said Peter "You have been hurt; but I believe if you think hard you will find that it is not your heart that is broken; that it is not love that causes the pain. It is in a part the anger that your family should have been attacked by this man's actions, and in part your pride that he did not love you well enough to stay silent, regardless of his own feelings. Now you may look at his actions in one of two ways. Firstly, if you wish to be fair and tolerant, you may see him as a patriot who felt he had no choice because he believed truly that your papa has acted contrary to the good of France."

"But what has that to do with spoiling our lives?" cried Beatrice "Surely he might have spoken to papa and told him he could not approve? Even broken our engagement?"

"No cherie, he could not; any more than your papa in doing as HE saw as right could refrain from sending funds to the royalist army" said Peter "It is the trouble when there is a civil war; it is the most uncivil of all wars because it sets kin against kin, lovers against lovers and both believing in their own country, but when that is the same country, defended by two diametrically opposed views this makes a difficulty."

"Do you then agree with him? But you have rescued us!" cried Beatrice.

"I consider that the execrable behaviour of certain of the aristocrats made life so difficult that revolution was inevitable" said Peter "And I have republican leanings. However I do not feel that innocents should be dragged into it. The problem with the regime is that it will not count just your father guilty; but the whole family. And he took the risks with his eyes open – for himself. He did not. I suspect, realise that the whole family would stand accused – because of your parents' previous roles as servants to aristos. This country's new administration is too young to manage to be fair, any more than an unbreeched moppet is fair. The task that we of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel have pledged ourselves to undertake is to do all we might to rescue the innocents and aid those incarcerated and condemned unfairly. The harshness is because the regime fears counter revolution if led by aristos and so it reacts with greater severity. Which we can do something to alleviate – with a few rescues. The League did not feel that the counter revolution was in any wise sustainable; nor, may I say, is the further disruption of a country desirable if there is any chance that it might become politically more moderate and stable. You however are very young and prefer passion and hatred to compassion and tolerance. You prefer to take the stand that condemns your erstwhile fiancé?"

"He should not have brought all this on the children!" cried Beatrice.

Peter reflected that it was the actions of the father who had brought all this on the children, knowing that his course of action to be risky; but she said nothing.

It seemed odd to feel so much older than this child who was but three years her junior.

"Then if that is the way you feel" said Peter "You should not let him win by permitting your misery full rein; you should grieve for the love that has been killed, then use the energy of your anger to move forward, and to dedicate your life to showing him that you do not need him; whether you choose to help others or whether you choose to marry an Englishman and put all thought of this Guillaume from you in the love of another. But you must, however much you grieve within, before you can move forward, give the semblance of a fair and gay face as a gypsy wench or there will be those who notice your behaviour as an anomaly; and anomalies are remembered. Would you like your tears to be the reason that we are all re-arrested before we may flee? I have to tell you this in honesty for I should do you no favours if I did not; and I should fail to protect your siblings and Felicien and his maman and uncle."

Beatrice flushed.

"I have brought enough misery on my family; I will not bring more. I am sorry; I will show a merrier countenance" she said.

Peter kissed her cheek.

"You are a good brave girl!" she said "And you shall join in singing 'Ça ira' with the rest of us because we are good patriotic gypsies."

"Yes Madame" said Beatrice meekly.

oOoOo

With the small children progress was necessarily slower until such time as Froggie managed to purchase a cart and a big Friesian cart horse, with soft black feathers about his hooves. Felicien knew how to ride country fashion and taught Henri; and they would take turns to sit bareback almost on the rump of the beast, one leg folded beneath then whistling or calling directions to the beast while the children, their parents and Marie-Louise rode with Armand too in the cart in his guise as an old crone. The cart made an impromptu stage when passing through villages and towns since for gypsies to be inconspicuous was as Percy put it too conspicuous. Peter did her rope walking; Percy tumbled, Marie-Louise taught Beatrice and the two younger ones to dance and Felicien and Henri learned some tumbling from Percy. Armand read fortunes in the palms of the eager and superstitious who wanted to cross 'her' palm with silver.

"It is risible!" Armand declared in some disgust counting up the not inconsiderable amount he had taken in Caen. "We went to the effort of banning God in order to prevent the control of superstition on the lives of the peasantry and what do they do? Look for more superstition!"

"Oh anyone will search for something greater than himself to make a meaning for existence" said Froggie "And God fulfils that need by being a Divine Being who guides our steps, someone to appeal to when we are in it up to our necks if only to ask for strength to carry on; and that prayer gets answered often enough, whether you believe it is aid from above or just the comfort of believing ourselves not to be alone. I suppose too, considering that conversation we had about scapegoats, God is the ultimate scapegoat, to blame when things go wrong and too to take ultimate responsibility so we can shab off taking any for ourselves. Unless you belong to the school that the League tends to follow that God helps those who help themselves and smiles on those who take responsibility for their actions to aid those who cannot. Fortune telling is merely one substitute; that you can blame Fate for things going wrong, or that Gypsy who read things wrong."

"Human beings are not especially glorious creatures as a whole, are they?" sighed Armand.

"Lud, m'dear chap!" said Percy cheerfully "Inglorious the human race may be, but consider those moments of heroism that we see from time to time, the stoic acceptance, the jest on the guillotine, the man who fights to keep his reason by writing out all that he knows on a prison wall. The man who can say, I am not perfect but I can do my best. The man who will turn aside to help another; or give up all he has to feed the starving. When you see moments like that you know that for all its faults, for all the pettinesses, for all the spite, the superstition, the desire to pass the blame there is too heroism, stoicism, industry, humour, compassion and a million good qualities; and then you understand why the rainbow represents God's pact with Noah, that there was in the human race that which was worth saving."

"Though in Noah he had to dig pretty deep at times" said Peter. "But I suppose that's the point isn't it; with all his minor faults, Noah was a man who was a good man. We can find an orphanage and leave our takings for the good sisters who run it, Armand, and let the superstitious fears of the foolish do some real practical good."

"You are right, ma mie" said Armand "It just struck me as so remarkably pointless that we believed that to break the power of the Church would be to usher in a world of reason, enlightenment and modernity. Evidently we too had faith in a god that was unknowable and unseen, and whose presence or absence made as little difference to the lives of the ordinary people."

"Wrong" said Duc Alois "The beliefs of reason and enlightenment in which you pinned your faith have a proven basis for existence; and need not necessarily exist as an alternative to faith. However, there is one requirement for them to make a difference in the everyday lives of people; and that is for the people to be ready to embrace them. It took me many years to persuade the peasantry of my lands to accept the agricultural improvements I wanted to make; I had to demonstrate on the home farm, with the labourers muttering until it proved itself, before the tenant farmers would try out anything new. Once they were convinced, then I had only to suggest. But it took nurture. All new ideas require as much nurture as a crop planted in spring, and there will always be ideas that fall on stony ground; and others that are choked by the weeds of inappropriate superstition. And those that begin to grow well and are over-fertilised by ideas that are not necessarily fully understood or properly applied" he finished dryly.

"You are a good man" said Armand "And your analogy is apt. I hope – as I dare say you are hoping – that your people will continue to apply the principles that you have taught them; and no doubt you fear that they may forget."

The Duc sighed.

"I cannot help but fear that" he said. "But it is too late now for me to do anything but hope that they are sufficiently used to the ways I showed them to farm efficiently. I am glad that I shall have the opportunity to work my way in a stewardship of another man's land; for even a landowner is never really more than a steward; for his peasantry and for his descendants."

"And if more aristos were like you the revolution need never have happened" said Armand.

oOoOo

From Caen it was a short trip to Bayeux; where a bad portrait of Citizen Chauvelin was to be found declaring that this cunning traitor was wanted and a price of five thousand francs on his head; and that he, a scrawny little rat of a fellow, might be travelling in company with a giant of a man probably of unsurpassed ugliness who was worth as much but who was known to disguise everything about himself but his height.

"Flattering amount" said Percy "Which is more than can be said of the description of either of us, nor of the drawing of you, Armand old man!"

"Good; I'm less likely then to be recognised" said Armand dryly. "Ah well, this is the work of Desgas; Barras would rather bury the whole matter than have it publicised that they have that amount of respect for our abilities to put a price on our heads. Desgas has no subtlety. He should have declared us thieves or child spoilers with a goodly price but make us vilified rather than make people wonder what makes us so valuable. But when one is chasing one so elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel and his band, sensible ideas like that do not form properly in a panicking brain."

"By jove, I'm glad they didn't form in your brain" said Percy "A competent portrait of myself and named a child spoiler would have put a severe crimp in my activities!"

"Under the circumstances" said Armand, dryly, "I too am glad that I did not think of it. The children have finished eating; shall we press on to Arromanches?"

oOoOo

The Chez Georges was a quiet inn in the little fishing village of Arromanches and soon the respectable party of a herring trader and his entourage and family might be found to be staying there.

They were not there for long; because the sleek vessel with the nets obscuring the name on her transom took them on board; and their going was not particularly remarked. The winter would not be a poor one for the fisherfolk of Arromanches whose memories were shortened and wits dulled by the weight of English gold weighing against their patriotic consciences.

And the _Daydream_ slipped quietly away with more passengers than had been expected and one more job well done than might have been anticipated.

"And because we turned aside a comfortable ride or drive in a calèche over fifty miles that we might not otherwise have had!" as Percy cheerfully informed Sir Andrew, in charge of the vessel.


	21. Chapter 21

_A/N I thought I'd make the last 2 chapters a double header..._

**Chapter 21**

The season was essentially over; but there was gaiety enough in Brighton, and at the Prince's Pavilion that arbiter of fashion and noted fop Sir Percy Blakeney might be found greeting his friends amiably while his wife flirted gently with a number of them too; and Marguerite's gaiety was now in no wise forced, for her beloved lord was home again, having survived the vagaries of balloon travel and the spite of Desgas.

Lord Kulmstead paled to see his enemy so affable and cheerful in manner, introducing Duc Alois de Belletréflière about; and wondering how he might have succeeded in having got into and out of France eluding the trap! He did not know how the man did it! Kulmstead was not given to superstitious awe; and too he had seen how some of the plans of the Scarlet Pimpernel had operated; but he felt a frisson of terror that was not entirely based on the logic that now Sir Percy had even more reason to dislike him.

Sir Percy was headed his way; Kulmstead steeled himself. If it were to be a duel he had no choice; but he would plump for pistols where he had something of a chance.

It was not to be a duel.

Sir Percy had headed his way purely in order to give him the cut direct.

At such a place, from a royal favourite, it was virtually social ruin.

Kulmstead sagged.

"Lord Kulmstead" the voice of St John Devinne behind him was soft but like steel. "A word."

Kulmstead turned.

"Devinne" he said.

"Strictly it should be Rudford to you" said Johnnie. "However, protocol aside I should like to advise you not to show your face in society, and especially London, again."

"And if I choose to ignore that advice?" said Kulmstead.

"Then the name and direction of one Molly Kulmstead will go on Harris' list" said Johnny calmly.

Kulmstead blanched. Harris' list was an informal publication of the whores of Covent Garden and the name Molly was the code for a male prostitute. It would cause at best misunderstandings; at worst….. he preferred not to think about it.

"You would not dare!" he managed.

"Would you really like to risk that?" said Johnny, grinning. "Some of us came up with it as an idea to keep you out of trouble – one way or another. You'll be withdrawing to the country shortly? Ill health perhaps? Emerods maybe…."

"DAMN you!" ground out Kulmstead.

Johnny sauntered off whistling. Mrs Peter had some deliciously wicked ideas.

oOoOo

Mrs Peter, having suggested the idea idly, was more interested in finishing her interrupted honeymoon; and catching up with all the news with George and Rateau and her foundlings.

She and Armand were withdrawing with George and Lucille to the country manor that had been left to her by her great aunt, who had ruled her spouse with a rod of iron to the extent of retaining her own property in law as well as de facto to leave as she pleased. Liza preferred to stay in London; but George was always willing for a new experience.

And as Peter said, they deserved a little peace.

"But, ma mie, I would trade peace any day for the chance to share my life, however eventful, with you" said Armand.

"Ah, mon Coeur!" sighed Peter happily. "You are quite right; and perhaps for some of us a quiet life is not ordained. A quiet few days and nights might be pleasant though."

"Oh I trust our nights will not be entirely quiet or uneventful" said Armand.

She gave a gurgle of laughter and flirted her eyelashes at him.

"Why milord, I do trust that you will lead the way in such endeavours!" she said.

Armand Chauvelin kissed his wife firmly and proceeded to demonstrate that occasionally being masterful was a more desirable state to be in than being entirely egalitarian.

**The End for now**


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